From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2009-01-02 19:38:05 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: swollen leg
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Your photos in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/photos/album/1569504286/pic/list
show the level of swelling we are used
to seeing with myofasciitis:
BEGIN QUOTE
Vet Pathol. 2007 Jan;44(1):25-38. Links
Myofasciitis in the domestic ferret.
Garner MM, Ramsell K, Schoemaker NJ,
Sidor IF, Nordhausen RW, Bolin S, Evermann
JF, Kiupel M.
Northwest ZooPath, Monroe, WA, USA.
zoopath@aol.com
Since late 2003, an inflammatory disease of
muscle and fascia has been diagnosed in several
ferrets at Northwest ZooPath, and this report describes
the condition in 17 ferrets. It is a disease of young ferrets,
characterized by rapid onset of clinical signs, high fever,
neutrophilic leukocytosis, treatment failure, and death
(or euthanasia). Gross lesions include atrophy of skeletal
muscle; red and white mottling and dilatation of the
esophagus; and splenomegaly. Histologically, moderate
to severe suppurative to pyogranulomatous inflammation
is in the skeletal muscle and the fascia at multiple sites,
including esophagus, heart, limbs, body wall, head, and
lumbar regions. Myeloid hyperplasia of spleen and/or
bone marrow also is a prominent feature. Ultrastructural
lesions include mitochondrial swelling, intracellular
edema, disruption of myofibrils and Z bands. Bacterial
and viral cultures, electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry,
and polymerase chain reaction were negative for a variety of
infectious agents. The clinical presentation and distribution
of lesions suggests that polymyositis in domestic ferrets is
likely a distinct entity. The etiopathogenesis if this condition is
known.
PMID: 17197621
END QUOTE
Zoopath and Michigan State can do the right tests to see if this
is what is present. Most labs do NOT know this test!
The full text is here for your vet and you:
http://www.vetpathology.org/cgi/reprint/44/1/25
Hopefully, it is not that, and it is hard to tell because this
seems to be your first post and there are not a lot of details.
DETAILS ON SYMPTOMS, HISTORY, MEDS TRIED, TESTS TRIED,
ETC., PLEASE!
What little you say on the rest does NOT sound like myofasciitis,
but there can be some variation in symptoms at first.
Dr. Katrina Ramsell now has a chemo protocol which works
quite well for myofasciitis, I have alerted her to your post and
photos in case it is that.
The prevalence of myofasciitis has gone way, way, way down
which may indicate that a hunch that it was perhaps partly due
to a contaminant in a med that no longer exists may be valid.
Here is an earlier write-up on the condition:
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/dimalert.pdf
Please, share this letter and all of the links and articles with
your vet.
If you send your vet's contact info directly to me and if the
other symptoms fit I will happily pass that further info on
to Dr. Ramsell by email. Dr. Ramsell is no longer at the
hospital in the Miamiferret article
I can be directly reached at
sukie@mac.com
and
sukiec@optonline.net
On of the things that can look similar in ferrets to myofasciitis
and is rare is leiomyosarcoma, but you give very little information
so it is hard to know what may or may not fit for this little one.
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