Dear Anonymous:
 
>EE hasn't 'officially' been diagnosed nor has bloodwork been a strong
>indicator of such.  Biopsy has been suggested, however, I do not feel
>completely comfortable with surgery since nothing points strongly to EE
>right now.
 
>Food allergy is/has been suspected, which, I believe, is where the idea
>of EE (allergy induced) came from.
 
>I've read that Ivermectin has been used to treat EE, hence, my question.
>The veterinarian prefers to go in and biopsy tissue, but I'd like to see
>if there's any response to Ivermectin first.  The veterinarian seemed
>uncertain regarding its use if certain conditions, known or unknown, were
>to exist.
 
Although ivermectin is a very safe drug in ferrets, we generally don't try
to give every safe drug to a ferret in hopes that it will help (known by
vets as the "shotgun" approach.") My gneral approach is to get a definitive
diagnosis before employing every drug under the sun.  Many drugs will yield
a temporary improvement without really doing much to treat the disease (or
perhaps we just hope for improvement so much that we actually see it when
it isn't there.)
 
However, many drugs mask clinical signs and even if we eventually do a
biopsy, we don't get a diagnosis (which we might have gotten before we
tried all the different drugs.)
 
Ivermectin won't hurt to try, but in a case where EE is not strongly
suspected, my question is why?
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3293]