Sorry for not posting sooner, but my phone line has been out due to an
electrical storm, and I couldn't spare the time to go to the campus and post
anything.  I haven't had time to read the last few FMLs, but I'll catch up
soon, I'm sure.
 
Good News!  The sick-uns are responding rapidly and very favorably to
antibiotic treatment.  Simon has gained back a third of his lost weight, and
Ballistic has started to eat on her own.  Stella and Buddy are also
responding well.  Those beasties just starting to appear ill have regained
their vigor!
 
To answer some stuff posted privately to me about the great sickness.  No,
it wasn't ECE; I've ever heard of viruses responding to antibiotics.  The
incubation period from the last possible exposure was wrong, and only a very
few of the group became seriously ill.  Besides, I can't believe the
majority of the group has an ECE immunity, and they all live together, so
all would have been exposed.
 
Also, while 19 out of 19 ferrets tested positive for campylobacter (I was
actually told it was an Ileobacter, but gave the older name because I
thought people who read Fox would be more familar with it), only about half
displayed symptoms, and only 6 became seriously ill.  Of those six, I could
only confirm proliferative colitis in Gus, although it was suspected in
Simon (Simon did have a necrotic portion of the bowel removed, but it was
disposed of before being tested.  I was too rattled to think of it at the
time.).  I sectioned and viewed the slides of Gus's bowel, and after
comparing them to known pathological slides, decided he had proliferative
colitis.  I did confirm Gus's diagnosis with several vet pathologists at the
local vet school, BTW, and both agreed.  Also, I don't think the degree of
colitis should have killed Gus; his heart was malformed, and I think the
stress of the illness did his heart in.
 
One poster asked how I managed to get the news so rapidly. I would tell
you, but then I would have to kill you. No, the moment I suspected
something was wrong, I called a good friend who has been dabbling in
microbiology as part of his PhD work. We accessed the source, so to speak;
don't ask (ever seen a bug-eged ferret with a surprised look on its
face?). He did plates and broth cultures, I did slides. Don't tell anyone,
but I also snunk a slide into the SEM lab, and looked under the electron
beam.  Its amazing what you can see at 10 KeV, backscattered. We had
already figured it was a virus or a bacteria, and knew it would probably
be one of just a few bag bugs, so only looked for them. It was several
days after this that Simon went bad, and nearly a week before Gus died. So
it really wasn't so fast, although my friend thinks so. (Oh yeah, I did
find the campylobacter/ileobacter as well as E. coli with the SEM, but I
used too much voltage--I'm used to looking at bone sections--and fried the
little buggers. I'm going to try it again later.)
 
Another poster thought all the symptoms I discribed happened to each ferret.
No, they were all the symptoms I noticed from all the ferrets displaying
symptoms.  For example, only Simon and Gus showed severe rear limb weakness,
only Gus had stiffening of the rear legs, and only two ferrets showed
greenish stools; Gus and Simon had bloody stools.
 
Finally, one poster wondered if they should be worried about this type of
illness.  This type of illness is that common; it certainly does not
typically occur to so many ferrets at once.  I suspect one of the ferrets
was a carrier; which one I don't know.  The only way I can figure so many
ferrets being exposed at one time is for the food or water stocks to become
contaminated from the carrier ferret.  This happened coincidentally at about
the same time I was introducing the five new ferrets from Oregon, so I
missed the early warning signs, attributing them to stress.  At the same
time, I was under a lot of pressure to get some papers written, so spent
less time with the beasties than normal, so missed even more.  By time I
noticed and figured out what was wrong, things had gone Ca Ca.  It is
conceivable, even if it makes me look rather stupid, that the ferts could
have been ill for more than a week before I paid attention.
 
How the food/water got contaminated, I'm not sure.  Because of the number of
ferrets, I switched the pellet dish to a pellet dispenser--the type that
holds several days of food.  Also, I use both water bottles and water bowls.
It is possible that once the pellets became contaminated, the poor guys ate
from it for several days.  Or the food itself could have become somehow
contaminated from an outside source.  Heck, it's even possible that a hidden
store of food spoiled, and most of the ferrets sampled the 'treat.' I may
never find out the cause of the outbreak.  But I've cured it, or more
accurately, am curing it.
 
Thanks for so many (143+) e-mails expressing sadness and support regarding
Gus and the latest problems. All were very much appreciated. Thank you.
Now if someone could just find it in their heart to send me some extra
time to catch up on the FML....
 
Oh, Oregon Pat--I lost your e-address so can't send mail. Post me, please.
 
Mo' Bob and the 18 Wascally Weasels. (Goodbye Gus...)
[Posted in FML issue 1695]