>Dear Ulrike:
>What an interesting litany of inflammatory disease. Sorry that I haven't
>replied sooner, but have had a number of problems preventing me from
>getting to the FML.
>
>Can you answer a couple of questions - are these indoor or outdoor ferrets
>and how are they maintained? Also, have any of the abscesses been
>cultured, and what organisms were identified?
>
>With kindest regards,
>Bruce Williams, dVM
Dear Dr Williams
My ferrets are all indoors, they have their own room with beds (cat carrier
bed and a cat "toilet" bed and a wooden box for a bed), cat climbing
frames, pipes and a lino floor. I mop the lino floor twice a day with
water and washing-up liquid. Their bedding is pullovers and blankets and
jackets which are washed every week or more often if needed. The group of
9 roam free in the room. Then I have a group of 4 who are in a 2 storey
wire cage that measures 3'x3'x3'. I have 2 rescue ferrets right now who
are in a 2 storey wood and wire cage.
And now I have yet another abscess, Gremlin, my rescue, I noticed the
abscess last night. It's right in front of her left back leg on her side.
She has a thick coat so I don't know how that happened. I let Gremlin
and her brother Hobo run with my group of 4 but then had Gremlin spayed
Wednesday 7th so since then she's only been out with her brother. The
abscess is 2 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide- pretty big! In the middle
it looks like a bloody scab and the area around the scab is yellow/ green
like the puss showing under the skin. The whole wound is surrounded by a
red line. Jack's first abscess last May and Mason's abscess in June looked
exactly the same. Jack's wasn't quite as big, Mason's was bigger.
None of the abscesses have been cultured... But I'm going to get Gremlin's
tested so we can identify the bug that's causing them. Jack's, Mason's and
Gremlin's abscesses are identical, all on the side of the body. Dana's
abscess was behind the ear, Tom's on the chin under the mouth, Jack's
latest one was right under his nose but it seemed to have come from the
inside. Because I treated him with antibiotics straight away, it never got
worse. Bella's abscesses could have been bite wounds but the one on the
leg was still in an odd place. I just find it weird how the ferrets got
the abscesses on their side? It's not a common site for bite wounds...
Thank you for your help, Dr Williams.
Best wishes from
Ulrike
and Jilly, Jack, Bella, Tom, Mason, Baby, Dana, Fox, Reno, Rose, Jasmine,
Barney and Spike
Missing Angel, Hope and Igor
West Wales Ferret Welfare
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.ferretlove.freeserve.co.uk
Last update 05/02/01
[Posted in FML issue 3329]
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