I lost my first ferret to Aplastic Anaemia in her first season, don't make
the mistakes I did.  I was told there was no need to worry, she could take
one season in oestrous (on heat), she could not.
 
There seems to be much discussion as to the risks of a Jill remaining on
heat and developing aplastic anaemia.  First things first, Aplastic Anaemia
is NOT BLEEDING TO DEATH.  It is the loss of ability to produce new blood
cells, not the loss of existing ones through bleeding.
 
Aplastic anaemia will develop in a jill which is left in oestrous.  It
is the result of the jill having no effective mechanism to control the
production of oestrogen with her body (a bit of a design fault in ferrets,
or a human application outside design specification).  As levels of
oestrogen increase a whole catalogue of problems can occur, the most
significant of which, in this case, is Hyper Oestrogenic Shock.  This is
manifest in 'shock' to the bone marrow (plus other structures) which is
responsible for red blood cell production, aspects of immune response and
regeneration, etc.  As the bone marrow 'shocks', red blood cell production
falls so a blood count will show a low cell count.
 
If a jill were to be hit by hyper oestrogenic shock she will go down hill
very quickly.  I lost my first girl to Aplastic Anaemia as a result of
hyper oestrogenic shock and she went from happy run around playful ferret,
through two days of being not quite herself to dead, in about a week.
 
Don't leave it to chance.  If she has been oestrous for more than a few
weeks then take her to the vet for an oestrogen suppressor injection.
Spaying is the only long term solution but as breeding is a possible plan
then this would be impossible.
 
I left it too late.  My girl was just a little off colour and a bit quieter
than usual when I took her to the vet.  By the time the first injection
would have been having some effect, she was already dead.  These injections
are not instant in response, they take a few days to a week to make an
impact and more than one may be required.  Don't forget the roll bone
marrow plays in immune response and system maintenance, if oestrous reaches
stages of shock she will have little immune system left to defend herself.
Pulling down oestrogen levels is only the start of treatment if she were
to reach the stage of aplastic anaemia so try to stop this.  Immune
dysfunction, low blood count, damage to bone marrow are all issue which
will result and each will slow the recovery from the next.
 
I hope this help, I am a strong believer that acting early to prevent
illness is a far superior technique to acting late to cure it.  It's not as
if the treatment requires you to wait, there will be no ill effects from
early response, a late one could be catastrophic.
 
Cc. [log in to unmask]
 
Wayne   (Lector, Priss and Bob (r.i.p. Lottie))
 
Wayne Gardner
Dept. of Medical Physics
United Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 3351]