Dear Colleen:
 
>Do ferrets get Lung worm?  If not i'm thrilled.  If so, could anyone put
>me onto any sites refering to lungworm.
 
You can be somewhat thrilled.  Ferrets housed outside in proximity to wild
mustelids can be infected by Filaroides martis, but they are not considered
to be life-threatening.  They are also treatable.  And they are exceedingly
rare.
 
The chance of your indoor ferret pet having lungworms would be nigh unto
astronomical.  Filaroides can be detected by specially fecal floatations
called a Baermann technique, because larval worms are passed in the feces,
unlike most other parasites, in which eggs are passed.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM
[Posted in FML issue 3300]