To Judy Gallipeau, Teebone, and Weezul:
 
        Concerning your question about liver disease and the ferret:  Liver
disease is not a terribly common malady affecting the ferret.  Ocasionally,
toxic reactions to products, including anesthetic gas may cause a fulminant and
lethal hepatitis.  Liver tumors are not common, although lymphosarcoma will
commonly be found there, along with other organs in the body.  I think that I
have only seen one tumor which originated in the ferret liver out of about 500
cases.  Heart disease is much more common in the ferret.  Ferrets develop a
condition called cardiomyopathy, which is a progressive deterioration of the
heart muscle itself, which eventually can no longer push the blood around the
body.  The disease, however, is treatable until the very end stages.
 
        Concerning the "Green Diarrhea Virus" - if you are seeing it off and on
in one of your ferrets, chances are that it is not the same disease that we are
seeing on the east coast.  This diarrhea is a severe, very dehydrating condition
that has resulted in the death of several ferrets.  Ferrets can have greenish
diarrhea from any number of causes - nayting that markedly increases the transit
time of ingesta through the gastrointestinal tract.  The most common cause of
diarrhea in ferrets, as in other species, is most likely related to some form of
"dietary indiscretion".
 
 
Bruce Williams, DVM
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[Posted in FML issue 0621]