One real possibility for them is still coccidia, of course, and
coccidia's worst times DO come in waves. That is because they can
"blooms" of mass egging. During those blooms diarrhea and even bleeding
can happen. When the blooms stop the symptoms abate on their own
*****which has led to people incorrectly thinking at times that some
very weird things actually helped when it was simply the end of a
bloom*****. Then things will be silent until the next bloom (another
problem with incorrectly attributing a cure when the ferret is actually
just between blooms either on its own or because it was knocked down
but not yet killed off by medications). Some forms of coccidia which
ferrets get can be fatal. Some of them require a much longer run of
treatment, usually with Albon, than the usual. Coccidia are protozoans
of several types.

Bill Gruber, the FHL [FML! BIG] moderator, will probably remember a
time long ago when the Ferret Mailing List played an integral role in
stopping an especially fatal form of coccidia in it's tracks. I think
he was here then. Coccidia mutates pretty easily, BTW, compared to some
other illnesses. Anyway, what happened that time was that people in up-
state New York, and then a few other places in the NYC region began
having a GI disease which was expressing symptoms in a minority of
their ferrets but killing every ferret who got it. Through the FHL
originally, and then also on the side in a discussion among vets (a
temporary A List) there were quarantines of those locations arranged,
special precautions were taken by the vets of those ferrets, back
tracking to find commonalities was done, and Dr. Bruce Williams (who
had a bit of free time back then to do so) began looking at remains.
The problem turned out to be coccidia mutant which arose in a Long
Island shelter that had been moved with ferrets to other locations. It
was a mutant that was hard to get but which guaranteed a fatal outcome
when it was caught. All ferrets in every location with it were treated
with an especially long run of Albon and that mutant was stopped in
its tracks.

More recently there was a very bad coccidia in shelters, first in the
South. Sadly, it was a long time before specimens were sent to
reputable ferret knowledgeable pathology laboratories such as
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
so it spread quite a bit. Finally, specimens were sent to that ferret
health university group (which has helped understand many serious
ferret illnesses so check out their site) and the genus and species of
the coccidia found as well as how to approach it. The deaths decreased
but it had been spread around a bit so this one raises its head
periodically. Because it is the Eimeria rather than Isospora not all
veterinary hospitals or pathology laboratories think to look for it,
and it is much smaller so it gets missed.

Much more recently an often used veterinary pathology laboratory
repeatedly missed smaller coccidia in ferrets during an outbreak of a
very nasty strain and a number of ferrets who could have been treated
died.

Here is some information:
The types of coccidia known to be caught by ferrets in 2006 (so expect
additions to list since then):
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/SG17961
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL9021
includes
>The vet says most labs view fecals under the microscope at a 10
>objective on top and a 10 objective on the bottom (magnification
>of 100) and when you view a fecal like this, it appears very
>unremarkable - looks sort of like red blood cells - very even. ...
>But when you look at the same fecal under a 10 objective on the top
>and a 40 objective on the bottom (magnification of 400) you will
>absolutely see this type of coccidia.

http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL9527
>Glad to hear all are doing well. Dogs and cats usually have coccidia
>from Isospora. Rabbits usually have Eimeria. Ferrets can have Isospora
>or Eimeria. Surprised that Antech did not id an Eimeria species,
>because Eimeria is quite common in pet bunnies.
>Jerry Murray, DVM

http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YPG590
>(some of the info in this has perhaps changed in the time since it was
>written)
>**In my opinion and experience, coccidia is not all that hard to
>diagnose, as an animal having diarrhea due to coccidia tends to be
>shedding a good number of organisms and therefore it's pretty easily
>found, especially if several specimens are checked. It is possible
>that some of my colleagues have had other experiences, of course.
>
>The tricky thing about coccidia is to look for it and to be able to
>recognize the less common species of coccidia found in some cases. For
>example, the most common one seen by vets is Isospora - but one often
>found in ferrets is Eimeria, which looks slightly different and is a
>bit different size. Depending on the experience and training of the
>person running the fecal sample, it might be missed due to that. Also,
>occasionally an animal will break with diarrhea prior to the beginning
>of shedding of large numbers of oocysts, so a negative sample early in
>the disease might be a problem with diagnosis.**
>
>Dr. Ruth

http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL7516
from Dr. Ruth Heller includes
>Yup, that's what coccidia does. It's an opportunistic little thing -
>any illness or stress can cause it to bloom.

http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL11273
(this year)
>Just a reminder, folks, have your vets look very closely for coccidia,
>even if your ferrets aren't ill, but especially if they are. In the
>past two weeks, I have seen multiple ferrets with coccidial
>infections, one of which was severely ill and didn't make it, but most
>of which were young, healthy kits (under 8 months, for the most part)
>with only a few parasites seen on the fecal exam. The one that died
>was also under a year.
>
>Dr. Ruth

http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL9685
>In a message dated 08/15/09 12:37:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
>My vet does not want to treat for coccidiosis as it is usually only
>present if other stress factors are involved and usually sorts itself
>out.
>
>**This is often true. But any stress that comes through your household
>can lead to the coccidia becoming a problem, as I learned personally
>(and all too sadly) when I lost many ferrets last fall when a flu
>virus came through and triggered the coccidia. You may want to
>consider keeping anti- coccidial medicine on hand and starting it if
>you would happen to get a virus, or any stress like new ferrets in
>and out, etc.**
>
>Dr. Ruth

on hard to find strains due to intermittent shedding/blooming:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL9032
>**Nope. I run my fecals in-house and always look under both the tenx
>and the fortyx lenses - never found the coccidia in the almost thirty
>samples I checked (we did find other animals with coccidia during the
>same timeframe, so it wasn't that we just weren't seeing it.). The
>only way it was found in my household was by histopathology at MSU.
>
>I think this is just a very intermittent shedder, making it very hard
>to find - unfortunately.**
>
>Dr. Ruth

Notice that the people at MSU have specialized testing not available
in many other places:

Sometimes if many specimens are tested for a week or so the coccidia
can be found, but there can be ones that are even harder to find than
that.

Coccidia DOES create intestinal damage.

You can find more information in the archives of both the Ferret
Mailing List and the Ferret Health List. Both URLs are in my sig
lines, and the URL of the FML is also in each day's digest header.

BTW, toxoplasmosis is another form of coccidia that can cause illness
in ferrets, but ferrets are not the right host so when in then this
disease does not complete its life cycle and is not infectious to
humans, unlike with cats:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG10863

http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG7872
includes:
>Remember that the oocyst (infective egg) stage of the coccidia (yes
>they ARE protozoa) can live outside the body for quite a while, and
>resists drying. They can get in cracks and crevices of cages, etc.
>and bide their time until ingested by a naive ferret, and the cycle
>starts over again. This is more likely than coccidia living on in
>the intestine of a treated ferret.
>
>And, most coccidia outbreaks have more than one affected animal....
>
>With kindest regards,
>Bruce Williams, DVM

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)

[Posted in FML 6788]