Mary Jo,

Sorry this is happening to your senior fuzzy.

Reading through your post a couple of things struck me, her age and the
cystic kidney disease (PKD??). Kidney disease in any species is very
serious and can lead to renal failure. You don't mention whether your
little girl has been treated for this. I am assuming if treatment were
offered she would be. Don't know what the treatment might be, if she
were a human she'd be on dialysis and on the organ donor list for a
kidney transplant.

Hind end weakness in a ferret is due to a number of things, however, is
generally a strong indicator of overall weakness/disease. The sicker
the ferret, the more pronounced the hind end weakness. The cystic
kidneys would be enough to cause that. Her progressive weakness would
suggest that she is getting sicker. And this could be due to a number
of different things, including age.

Now as to the other condition you mention - prolapsed off/on again
rectum, jelly-like stools and 'normal' appetite rang true for me. Those
were the symptoms my 4 year-old female displayed and are consistent
with Eosinophilic Granulomatous (EGE) - rare in ferrets, rarer still in
female ferrets. Unknown etiology, difficult to treat. It is essentially
an auto-immune disorder, although mistakenly thought of as Inflammatory
Bowel Disease.

Unfortunately, the only way to get a definite diagnosis of EGE is to
biopsy the intestinal tract, lymph nodes and liver. Linguini underwent
exploratory surgery in August, which confirmed the diagnosis.

Not to say your little girl has this specific condition but her
symptoms are certainly suspicious of gastrointestinal involvement,
as concomitant disease to the kidney illness. However, if you are
interested I can send information to you, for your veterinarian on
EGE that I received from Anne Bazilwich, DVM

Clearly at her age, and given the PKD you don't want to put her through
exploratory surgery, which she may not survive. There are recommended
medications for EGE, but diet is also important. You will need to
discuss viable options with your vet on what kind of diet she can
tolerate, given the kidney disease, since high protein is not good for
kidney disease. The 2 options recommended for EGE are Innova EVO Ferret
(super high protein), contraindicated for your little one because of
her kidney disease - or Hills z/d feline (hypoallergenic food), better
choice.

I do hope you get to the bottom of this and best wishes for your
little girl.

Keep us informed of her progress!

Sincerely,
Tressie

Tressie A. Dutchyn, MA
ID PhD student, Dalhousie University

Research Associate
Atlantic Interdisciplinary Research Network for Social & Behavioral
Issues Hepatitis C & HIV/AIDS
Department of Community Health & Epidemiology
Faculty of Medicine
Dalhousie University

[Posted in FML 5794]