From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2011-10-12 15:43:43 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Unknown illness
To: fhl <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
Very long ago; I think perhaps even before the Ferret Mailing List though it might have been in the early FML (which is now 24 years old), there was a case of a calm ferret who suddenly went insane and attacked a child but was quickly removed. On examination it turned out that the ferret had a horrible ear mite infection that had developed a secondary fungal infection which also went untreated. The fungus ate through the bulla (the bone around the ear) and infected the brain. The change in behavior was due to brain damage and it was too late to save the ferret.
The description in the second post sounds like it could have a similar cause, and it definitely pays for the treating vet to check the ferret in the first post in case there is a truly severe ear infection going on. There are also types of ear cysts and ear tumors which are among the things the vet will check. A skull fracture can cause the leaking of cerebral fluid from locations like the ear or nose. There are also brain infections ferrets can get but I do NOT know if any of those can eat through the bone. Hopefully, the cause of fluid loss is one of the lesser possibilities and nothing as dire as some of the things I mention here.
I don't have time to check the original post to see if the person has a treating vet yet or if the person needs a vet who treats ferret regularly or not, nor do i recall the particulars since I am terribly busy recently, but if there is not a vet who regularly treats and knows ferrets then do check resources such as:
http://ferrethealth.org/vets/
which can be linked to from the FHL Files section
and also other lists that are of or including ferret vets such as the ones at Ferret Universe, and at Support Our Shelters.
This is going to be a very difficult location to image.
Has some of the fluid been sent to a lab for culture to find possible culprits and for antibiotic challenges? If not, then that would a logical thing to do. In such a serious situation I think I would insist on the ferret pathology lab of Michigan State. See my sig lines for the MSU link of their Ferret Health Advancement group.
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
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)
On change for its own sake: "You can go really fast if you just jump off the cliff."
(2010, Steve Crandall)
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