Hi All:

I was wondering if anyone here has ever heard of or experienced Evans
Syndrome in their ferrets. My vet did a search on it, & can only find
references to dogs, cats, & humans.

Minxie is 4 yrs old, & weighs about 1.3 lbs. About a yr & a half ago,
she began showing signs of adrenal disease, & 13 mos ago, she received
a melatonin implant, which worked nicely for her. Back in April, she
got her rabies & distemper vaccinations, & has a bad reaction to one
of the shots -- tightness & tension all over her body, head turning,
grimacing. I took her back to my vet immediately (fortunately, he's
only a 2 min drive down my street), & as soon as he got her back to the
hospital area, she began having rectal bleeding. He treated her, & by
the end of the day, she was her old self. This is the only time she's
had a reaction to her shots.

It's only recently she's shown signs of needing another melatonin --
excessive grooming of herself & the other 3 ferrets, aggressive play
w/ some of her toys, & dry, itchy skin. No hair loss. She got that
yesterday morning at about 11a, under light ISO, & after a brief period
of observation, she was sent home. As soon as I got her home, I noticed
that she was bleeding quite a bit from the injection spot. I put
pressure on it, which did nothing. I called the office, & they
recommended pinching the area to put better pressure on it, which I
did. This seemed to help, so I put her back in her cage & left for
about 1.5 hrs to do a couple errands.

When I came home & checked on her, the cage literally looked as though
someone had been *savaged* in there! There was blood everywhere. I
started calling out Minxie's name as I started looking through the cage
for her, & she popped out of the hammie on the very top level, just
like normal, except that she had blood running down her back & right
front leg. I again called my vet's office, & they told me to bring her
in right away (time was about 3:00p). My vet -- who is an *excellent*
ferret vet - said he'd put skin glue on the spot, & keep her for a
little while to make sure it worked. I picked her up at about 5:00p, &
it appeared the bleeding had slowed down. He said it was hard to get
the glue to work, since there was so much bleeding, there wasn't much
of a dry area to work w/. He had the area bandaged w/ non-stick pads &
vet tape wrapped around her upper body, to keep constant pressure on
it. I brought her home & put her into the hospital cage -- & w/in 45
min, it was soaked in blood. I took her back in, & we worked on her
for an hour. The dressing he'd put on earlier was soaked to the point
of dripping blood. He put a couple stitches in the area to pinch it
tight -- nothing. He got some silver nitrate sticks, & it took *4*
of them to finally stop the bleeding. By now, she'd been bleeding
continually from 11a -- 7:30p. She was weak, she was pale, & she was
lethargic, but the bleeding was stopped, & we once again came home.
She's now doing a lot better, no more bleeding, she's perking up, &
pinking up, as well.

His best diagnosis is Evans Syndrome, which is an attack of the immune
system, specifically the blood platelets, which kills them off &
prevents blood clotting. He believes it is a result of the bad reaction
she had to her vaccinations back in April. (He said the other major
cause would be exposure to rat poison -- which we don't even *own*!) We
are treating her w/ pred, vitamin K, & a high protein & calorie diet,
to build her back up. We'll taper off the pred dosage in 5 days, but
will keep her on a minimal dose for some time. She'll also be on the
vitamin K until further notice.

I was wondering if anyone here has had this happen to their ferrets
before, & if so, how did they do in the long run? My vet doesn't think
it'll be a big problem for her, but it will obviously affect how
she's treated for various things in the future -- definitely NO more
vaccinations, no "elective" procedures (mast cell tumors, etc), &
should she *need* surgery in the future, she'll have to be loaded up
on pred & vitamin K beforehand, as a precaution.

Any experiences or thoughts welcomed ~

Lin

[Posted in FML 7210]