Every once in a while I get a story that really burns me up.  Here's one
of these that came to me this weekend outside the FML -
 
>My ferret is 2 years old.  About 6 months ago in April Angie started to
>loose hair on her tail.  I thought maybe she had Adrenal Disease... About
>1 month later she lost a lot of weight and wouldn't play with the other
>ferrets anymore... I called the Vet and I brought in a stool sample, which
>she wasn't even going very much.  He also x-rayed her and did blood work.
>They found she had a tapeworm and also he thinks she has a tumor.  They
>gave me medicine for both Drontal (for tapeworm) and Pred 5mg (for
>tumor)....
 
In the first place, tapeworms are extremely rare in ferrets, and second and
most importantly, they cause no clinical disease.  Tapeworms are derived
from ingested fleas, and they simply sit in the gut and subsist on whatever
is moving through.  They do no eat enough to make any difference to a
normal healthy ferret, nor cause diarrhea.  Third, they are generally
diagnosed from passing white segments of the worm with the stool (which
look like rice) and wiggle, which was never seen in this ferret.  Bad call.
 
Plus prednisone for an unspecified tumor (which talking with the owner, was
diagnosed by feeling "a lump" in the abdomen.)  No biopsy, no exploratory,
just right to the Pred!
 
>... She was o.k.  for about 3 months.  In the last 2 months she started
>not to play again and hardly had any stool.  I thought she got a tapeworm
>again.  The Vet checked her stool again and they said she had coccidia.
>They gave me medicine for that Albon(?  spelling)and the tumor medicine
>again.
 
Glad we refilled that "tumor" medicine again!  Plus, none of the other
three ferrets in the household got the coccidia, or were even tested.
Coccidia generally occurs as a group outbreak....everyone gets it.
 
>She filled up with fluid and would hardly move.  She did keep eating
>good through all this.
 
You've got to wonder why no one though about heart disease - the most
common cause of abdominal fluid accumulation.
 
>I took her to the Emergency Clinic on a Sunday, they said to put her down.
>I couldn't and took her home.
 
Good for you!  Never take that advice - ferrets are fighters, and you
should be too!
 
>The next day I called our Vet again and asked for one last try with the
>tapeworm medicine again.  I felt she was acting the same way she did when
>she had it the first time.  They said o.k.  and I gave her the tapeworm
>medicine again.  About 1 week later all the fluid was gone and she was
>starting to play again and also had almost a normal stool again.  She was
>o.k.  for about 1 week and now she is very very thin and not much energy
>but tries and she's not eating well for the first time through all this.
>Is there any hope!  Her stools are like water and reddish brown.  Should
>I put her down?
 
You've got to wonder what goes through the mind of a vet who has to know
that tapeworm medication isn't going to do anything for this ferret but is
willing to sell it anyway not once but three times and not try to get to
the real root of the problem.
 
As of right now, this person has been referred to another local vet with
ferret expertise, and I have also tracked down Dr. Karen and forwarded her
the phone number.  The ferret has obvious signs of gastric ulcers and is
stick thin - the vet never mentioned that the owner may want to supplement
food because it won't eat anything, nor made mention of the gastric ulcer -
although noting that the animal was pale and probably anemic.
 
I generally try not to get in the middle of a vet-client relationship (I
generally don't even want to know who the vet is), but sometimes the best
advice I can give is to find someone else who has some knowledge of
ferrets.  I am constantly surprised at vets who can't seem to find the
ability to admit that they don't know everything about every species, and
would jeopardize an animal's life in order to look knowledgeable (I hope
that it is more an ego thing than a $$$ thing.)
 
Me, Bruce Williams - ask me about hedgehogs and "I don't know".  Ask me
about the latest anti-inflammatories for dog arthritis - "I don't know".
Ask me something in my specialties - pathology or the relatively small
field of ferret medicine - I think I can speak with some authority there.
If I don't know the answer, I'll find it out, or put you in touch with
someone who does know it.  But I serve no one by pretending to be
authoritative on subjects outside of my field.
 
A man's got to know his limitations.
[Posted in FML issue 3196]