From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2008-12-13 17:17:47 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Basics for the common cold.....
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Respiratory infections and ferrets.
Ferrets do not get colds.
When they catch a respiratory infection
from a human it could be a bacterial sinus
infection or other respiratory infection.
Most likely influenza since they pick that
up easily.
See these post from ferret veterinary pathologist,
Dr. Bruce Williams:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG4053
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG4054
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG10945
Note that he repeats that ferrets do not get colds.
No one knows this topic better than an expert in
exactly the right area of study and ferret pathology
is exactly that.
Pharmaceutical companies would love it if ferrets
could be used as a model for human colds, but
since they don't get the right virus category they
can't be. Currently, they are used as animal models
for influenza and at times for bacterial sinus infection
(though not as good a fit for that though they can
trade some of them back and forth with people).
It is not unusual for a human to have a case of
influenza that is mild for the person because she
or he had a related one in the past (so it can seem
like just a cold) but the ferret will not have had a
previous exposure so the ferret gets a full-blown
case.
People also often confuse bacterial sinus infections
with colds. Sinus infections respond to antibiotics;
colds don't. If it lasts longer than a cold should
of if the nasal mucus is yellow, green or brown
then especially think "bacterial sinus infection".
It is possible to have a silent carrier of a bacterial
sinus infection in a family who reinfects others,
something we had happen here years ago with
Steve (wonderful hubby) as the silent carrier.
Here is some info from a previous post I wrote:
When people think the ferrets have colds they
instead have more serious things, some of which
need treatment, and some of which are responsive
to antibiotics (bacterial sinus infections are responsive
to antibiotics but colds are caused by rhinoviruses so
are not). Ferrets get bacterial sinus infections, they get
influenza (especially avian forms), they get pneumonia
of several types, etc. They don't get the rhinoviruses
that cause colds which is great annoyance to the
pharmaceutical industry which would LIKE to study them
in relation to colds AND the human-overlap things that
they do get but CAN'T because ferrets simply do NOT
catch rhinoviruses.
See these expert vet posts:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG4053
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/SG1618
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG10945
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG9530
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG4054
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG2137
Many people confuse bacterial sinus infections with colds.
If antibiotics work then obviously there is a bacterial
infection rather than influenza or another virus such
as the colds that ferrets don't get. If a "cold" seems
to be going on unusually long in a human then get
sinuses checked for bacterial sinus infection. It's
easily checked and it's treatable though some strains
are pretty hardy in recent years.
Of course, some ferrets also wind up with allergies,
but that is much less common, and even fewer have
sniffed debris into a sinus and can't expel it, or
grow sinus tumors, or have infected tooth roots
infect the sinuses. or...
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
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