Message Number: FHL13131 | New FHL Archives Search
From: "Tressie"
Date: 2011-04-12 11:11:08 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Mycoplasmosis confirmed in a Marshall's Ferret
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com

I wanted to alert everyone that our area has its first confirmed case of mycoplasmosis in a Marshall's Ferret.

She is young only a year old and has not been well since she was purchased at one of the local pet stores. She did not have the dry hacking cough typical of mycoplasmosis but initially presented with more like gagging, muffled difficulty breathing episodes.

We don't know how she was infected but suspect it may have been exposure to Real Canadian Ferret kits at the pet store or at the broker's.

[How long is the time from exposure to symptoms with
this? That seems very long unless she was bought as
a young adult.

-- wondering moderator]

The bronchoalveolar lavage was done and the pathology lab at the University of Guelph Veterinary School confirmed mycoplasma. Several weeks later a second lavage was done and the sample was sent to Michigan State U. and came back as a false negative. The pathologist MSU speculated that could be due to a number of reasons including:

- that subsequential samples may not all be positive
- treatment administered between samples may affect the sample
- or that the particular sample was of lesser quality for unknown reasons.

Therefore, if you have a ferret that is showing symptoms of mycoplasmosis (i.e., dry hacking cough, episodes of difficulty breathing, etc.) and it is NOT a Real Canadian Ferret, don't assume it can't be mycoplasmosis and have your vet check it out.

Tressie



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