From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2009-06-04 16:08:03 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Sick ferrets in Australia
To: fhl <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
Did all of the ones who survived have rapid stool passage soon after
symptoms? It read like that to me: some of the survivors had furball
preparations and one had diarrhea. It so, that might indicate a toxin
that was passed more rapidly by those ferrets, so it got out of them
before harm could be done. Just a guess of one possibility...
I noticed that your own vet suggested that a problem with a toxin may
be possible and retained specimens of liver and kidney to test for that.
Also noticed that the pathologist wrote:
> Overall, there are no histopathological features to indicate a
> specific disease process or obvious cause of death in this animal.
> There is no evidence to suggest viral infection e.g. distemper, or
> other systemic infectious agents. As per the gross necropsy report
> fresh tissue has been retained should further investigation be
> required e.g., toxicology...
Also, I notice that you have been feeding raw; have you checked for
recalls?
The rodents may or may not have had the same cause; rodents and
members are carnivora are not very related (in fact, rodents are
closer taxonomically to us primates) so there are not a huge number of
diseases that they share.
This does make me wonder if there might possibly be a poisoning
situation going on, either accidental, or perhaps similar to one that
happened when I was going up where a neighbor (in this case a child
but his father and mother weren't much better, ditto a friend of
theirs) went around poisoning neighborhood pets. The large ones
didn't get enough to die, but the small ones did.
I noticed that they asked specifically if snail bait had been used
locally, and it wasn't, but that does not discount the possibility of
someone who badly needs help doing this purposely without your
knowledge or of other toxins, I am afraid. That is a concept none of
us ever want to consider, and perhaps why it took a while to discover
why pets were dying in our neighborhood when I was young.
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/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
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