>I wrote about my Spike a while ago, about his third eyelid being swollen
>and red.  It has gradually become worse and his whole head and neck are
>swollen.  The vets did a blood test but all results were normal.  Now my
>vet suggested that there may be a mass growing in his head and somehow (I
>forgot her exact words) stopping blood or fluid from flowing out of his
>head, causing a build-up of fluid in his tissue.  Or high blood pressure
>in his head.  All the tissue in his head/ mouth is soft and swollen, we
>were hoping for an infection but that would have shown in his blood
>results so it's tomorrow and asked me to bring a healthy ferret along so
>they can see whether anything is different in Spike.
 
Dear X:
 
This is an unusual case.  I've never seen anything like it in a ferret.
But I have seen cases like it in other species.  It is likely not a
solitary mass in the head - while this could possibly cause one eye to
bulge, or extremely rarely, two - they usually don't account for swelling
of all tissues.
 
I like your vet's theory on interrupted outflow from the head and neck.
The rare cases that I have seen generally involved some occlusion of the
anterior vena cava - the large single vein which drains the head and neck.
Both carotid veins dump into this large vein, which if occluded, will
cause edema of the head and neck.  This vein can be occluded by a
thrombus, a neoplasm (usually outside the vein, compressing it), or by
similar processes in the right atrium of the heart, where it dumps into.
You can rarely see clots in the atria in ferrets with heart disease, but
I have not seen one of this size (at least yet.)
 
In such cases, contrast radiography of the vessels of the head, neck,
and chest is the best way to identify the vascular problem short of at
autopsy, but this is usually only available through large referral
hospitals or universities.  In a typical practice, this is a very
difficult diagnosis to make antemortem, and probably more difficult to
treat.  I hope that I am out to lunch on this one.
 
With kindest regards,
 
Bruce Williams, dVM
 
[Sukie note: Photos of the affected ferret: WARNING these are upsetting
pictures so do not see them if you are disturbed badly by such images,
but do if it is a learning opportunity for you:
 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list/files/Images/spike1.jpg
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list/files/Images/spike2.jpg
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list/message/7638 ]
[Posted in FML issue 3561]