From:
"Lisa Oestereich"
Date: 2009-05-21 15:28:53 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] FW: Coccidia
To: <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
Since November, my ferrets have been battling green poo. I was part of
that whole "new hot strain of ECE" thing and I lost several ferrets from
it. Most of the ones that died were old and/or their health was
compromised. To make a long story short, I still, from time to time,
see a green poo here and there (no deaths since January). Three weeks
ago I took Sammy, a 6.5 yo male who was diagnosed with liver disease
almost two years ago to the vet. Sammy had been feeling under the
weather so I went in for blood work. On the follow up three weeks
later, the vet did blood work (which was only slightly better), an Xray
and a fecal. He viewed the fecal sample under his microscope instead of
sending it out to the pathology lab (A pathology lab that I know is used
by a number of people here in the East, thought it may be used elsewhere
too) and what did he find? COCCIDIA. I could have fallen over. So all
these months, all the fecals sent off to the lab were misdiagnosed? I
have had fecals done at two other vets during this ordeal. This is not
to say anything negative about them - they are both very fine vets. My
gripe is not with them at all - it's with the lab.
The vet says most labs view fecals under the microscope at a 10
objective on top and a 10 objective on the bottom (magnification of 100)
and when you view a fecal like this, it appears very unremarkable -
looks sort of like red blood cells - very even.
But when you look at the same fecal under a 10 objective on the top and
a 40 objective on the bottom (magnification of 400) you will absolutely
see this type of coccidia.
This same vet had a conversation with this pathology lab about this very
situation last summer. He says he will call them again and ask them why
it's still happening. He is the only vet I know that will look at a
fecal in-house anymore. Even if one were to relay to your vet that you
wanted the pathology lab to view your fecals per the info above, how
could you be sure that this info would actually be passed along
correctly to the lab?
I would love to know if Dr. Ruth sent fecals to this same pathology lab
(or another lab) during her bout with green poo this winter.
A few final questions - All the kids have been on Albon for five days
(which ended yesterday). BTW, they have all perked up and are doing
well. In the past I have cleaned the floors, cages and litter boxes
with a light bleach solution. How long will they shed the virus? Is it
only contagious via fecal matter? How long can coccidia live in a home?
Although I've used bleach to clean, one of the vet's textbooks said to
use ammonia, not bleach. Does bleach work?
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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