Be SURE to read these vets' posts:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/message/17220
Repeat this portion of that post to yourselves over and over because it
is IMPORTANT and LOGICAL:
>I know that when a ferret dies following a medical procedure or
>treatment, the natural inclination is to blame that procedure or
>treatment. Sometimes that is valid. Many times it is coincidental.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/message/17219
And always remember from this second linked post:
>Proximity of the administration of a product administered near death
>does not correlate it with the death.
>
>Just because an animal was given XYZ at some time before dying does
>NOT in any way mean that it caused the death.
>
>IF the ferret community wants to start trying to link these things --
>the ONLY way to do so is to have every animal have a full necropsy.
>When the necropsy is done, regardless of which DVM does it, it is
>next to useless without histopathology! It is virtually impossible
>to diagnose anything with the naked eye without a biopsy -- we can
>GUESS, but that is all it is.
and
>To spread hype that this is caused by that -- without the info to back
>it up -- only causes fear and harm. Ferrets will be denied care for
>fear of a drug, which is likely harmless. It may be held up in
>availability in the US because the "rumors" need to be investigated.
>
>This is such an ongoing and entrenched theme in the ferret community --
>and there seems to be a compete lack of understanding that we do not
>have crystal balls and magic glasses to identify problems without
>running tests.
It sounds like no one else seems to be running into the same symptoms
and timing that Ardith has encountered, and that the others replying
have had ferrets who had a lot going on already and had deaths that
were easily explained by well documented causes OTHER than the
Suprelorin implants. Additionally, a number of the people replying
have only described common complications of adrenal disease that has
advanced beyond control.
There could easily be a totally different cause for the ferret deaths
Ardith has experienced, but until there are pathology/histology results
the actual cause of death will not be known. Meanwhile, the people at
Virbac are in touch with the treating vet, and what is often done in
such a situation is to check samples retained of the batches.
Ardith herself had legitimate questions about diarrhea followed by
possible hemorrhage (and there can be other causes for that sequence,
too), but some others have created a panic bandwagon and have been
trying to shove almost anything on board.
On top of dealing with her own pain, coping with panicking people has
to be very hard on Ardith. For us such mails were a real horror and
very unwelcome when we lost Chiclet to DIM early in that syndrome's
appearance.
I have seen this destructive pattern happen in the ferret community
with too many past new medical concerns through the decades: unusually
dangerous forms of coccidia, DIM, Systemic Ferret Coronavirus, Enteric
Ferret Coronavirus, and more. Doing that causes hard info to be lost
because nothing matches up any longer, and it just creates spirals of
panic which can lead to inappropriate treatment or to not treating
ferrets who need treatment.
If you blow your nose and then flying goose poop lands on your head in
most cases there is going to be a cause other than you blowing your
nose for the deposit in your hair.
Coincidences happen for ferrets, too, especially for the ones who are
already ill, and sometimes for healthy ones. If the ferret dies from
what are known complications of the disease being treated there is no
mystery and there is only coincidence.
Again, of the people replying on the various lists, a great many have
simply described well-known complications of advanced adrenal disease
leading to the deaths, and in the few others there typically are
logical explanations from known causes which are in the ferrets'
histories in those posts, so there is no reason to stretch and try to
blame a treatment. Treatments have their limits. If you prefer surgery
then go for surgery while being glad that the ones who are not surgical
candidates have an option which can give an extended period of quality
life. For some who are surgical candidates this also will be the right
option, for others it won't be the best approach. Having options is
good. Not treating adrenal disease is cruel.
Without pathology/histology done we know ZILCH currently.
Here are two ferret knowledgeable expert pathologist teams:
The Ferret Health Advancement team at Michigan State:
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
[log in to unmask]
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/Diagnostics.php
Northwest Zoopath:
http://www.zoopath.com/
654 W. Main St., Monroe, WA 98272
Phone: (360) 794-0630 Fax: (360) 794-4312
People have evolved to create patterns, but that does not mean that
the patterns are logical ones, just that they were useful enough times
to avoid premature death or to aid in procreating. If you see a dipper
in the night sky you are seeing a pattern of stars hundreds and even
thousands of light years apart from each each other, but your brain
creates a pattern even though the reality is very different. Mistaken
pattern recognition and selective pattern recognition have be useful
at times and have lead to advances, but they also have lead to poor
care, have lead to bigotry, to wars, to terrorism, to lynchings, to
superstitions, and a bit too often to the wrong thing being blamed for
a ferret death when a logical explanation is right there if the correct
tests are just done to find it.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
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 7415]
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