From:
"Mary"
Date: 2010-02-03 13:20:12 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] coronavirus in ferret
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
A friend of mine has been told her two ferrets may have coronavirus. Their symptoms are generalised weakness and loss of appetite, they have done bloods and their liver enzymes are not good, sorry don't have access to full results. Vet is recommending she has them both put to sleep, is there any treatment or would it be kinder to le them go?
[The most common coronavirus that ferrets get is normal ECE
and almost all ferrets survive that these days with proper care.
See:
http://www.afip.org/consultation/vetpath/ferrets/ECE/ECE.html
to learn more about the illness and care.
There is a necropsy image so expect that.
In recent years there has been a new and RARE -- let me emphasize
RARE mutant of ECE also being seen. That one is systemic and is more
of a challenge. That one looks and behaves much like FIP does in cats
but there have been multiple studies of the genetics and it is not a
mutant of FIP coronavirus but instead of ECE coronavirus.
Many labs can tell if there is a coronavirus but they can not tell
WHICH coronavirus. There is a place that CAN tell you which one
it is, though: The pathology Lab of the Ferret Health Advancement
group at Michigan State. You can get to their diagnostic info from
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
Here is info on both:
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/Diseases/
The Ferret Enteric Coronavirus section begins about 1/3 of the way down
and right below that, about halfway down is the section on Ferret
Systemic Coronavirus which is FIP-like -- emphasizing LIKE -- but is
NOT FIP.
DO NOT ASSUME THE WORST WHEN IT MIGHT PLAIN OLD ECE, PLEASE!
There is a lot in a archives on both of these illnesses. This vet post is
on what the general coronavirus test does NOT tell a person and why it
can lead to confusion sometimes and it also gives a lot more info:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL9546
Also for your friend AND HER VETERINARIAN:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20079778
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18424841
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16499943
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10953717
--Moderator]
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