We've been battling bronchitis in Jake who is nearly seven.  He had his
first bout at the beginning of the year and we cleared that up fairly
easily.  Currently with his second bout we haven't been so successful.
After antihistamines, then antibiotics and then a steroid shot we thought
we had the upper hand till he stopped eating suddenly combined with hind
leg weakness and labored breathing and continuing asthma-like wheezing and
coughing, and just basically wanting to be left alone.  His coughing has
been sporadic - not thruout the day, lately only once per day and sounding
better although going back and forth.  This was surprising considering what
we discovered today.  Apparently the thoracic duct in his chest ruptured
from the coughing and leaked fluid.  Nearly 2 ounces of pinkish fluid was
removed - the most our vet has removed from a ferret.  One of his lungs
is partially collapsed from the pressure - they were not able to reinflate
it.  We are waiting for surfactants to build back up to see if that will
reinflate it.  Jake is obviously uncomfortable - the vet likens it to
pleurisy.  The bad news is that this rupture is a rare fluke (it can also
occur from trauma) that is impossible to repair.  It is apparently the size
of a pencil lead.  Even difficult to repair in humans.  You can wait and
see if the rupture will scar over, but that's not likely.  Our vet tried
this with a dog, draining the dog's chest for a month with no close in the
rupture and the dog had to be put down.  This is what we are facing with
Jake.  Currently he is home resting and we will get the lab results on the
fluid tomorrow which the vet feels will almost certainly confirm his
diagnosis.
 
Our vet is well-respected and the ferret expert in the area and we trust
his diagnosis.  I sure would like to hear from anyone who has dealt with
this before though.  Any information appreciated, although I suspect and
hope that experience with this has been rare.  Jake had always been so
healthy ever since we got him at 10 weeks from a private breeder and still
so playful that we thought he would be one of our longer-lived ferrets.
 
A very sad household tonite-
Shelly
[Posted in FML issue 3082]