I have shut down the brief mystery illnesses list since it did it's
purpose, and will only reopen it if an actual need is there.  What I AM
still doing is I am passing on Bruce William's contact info to the VETS of
those who have such needs.
 
Today I was asked to summarize what has been acheived: First off NOT ENOUGH
NECROPSIES AND PATHOLOGIES were done to be sure that there might not be
multiple things out there.  You know that wonderful Mother Jones quote
"Pray for the dead, but fight like hell for the living!" ?  Well, doing
testing to find out what was wrong when a furry died is one way to fight
for the living and save ferret lives.
 
Of those who were necropsied: two which were the only ones in their
households with such symptoms (of the Eastern Mystery(ies)) turned out to
NOT have such things -- they had kidney disease.  Otherwise, the ferrets
came in with coccidea.  Unfortunately, this creates a hard call for vets
because the medicines used for coccidea can be very potent and should be
used with caution, but this coccidea did NOT show up in life (but DID show
up in intestinal sections after death).  Meanwhile, this has been a very
dangerous strain which has bad intestinal hatches with serious localized
damage, and a number of deaths.  This makes it a tough judgement call for
vets and I don't envy them their predicament.  The one situation in which
Albon is clearly called for is where there have been one or more deaths
traced to coccidea and the rest have to be treated before they have a hatch.
 
May there by one or more other things out there?  Yes, of course there may
be.  If folks won't do the testing needed or their vets won't advise it
answers can't be found.  Is this, never-the-less, important info for you to
pass on to your local vets?  Yes, it is, but with the mention that there
still need to be more necropsies and the other qualifications.
 
Meanwhile, if you have a ferret with mystery symptoms and your vet needs
Bruce Williams' number, PLEASE, directly send me the symptoms list, age,
medical history if known, and your name so that files can be pulled, plus
the vet's name, practise, and phone number and I will personally call and
get Bruce's number to your vet's practise so that they can talk together,
as it should be for optimal benefit to the ferrets without anyone who is
already overworked reaching overload.  (Yeah, I offered to get in the
middle as a favor, but I'm also overworked so might miss a post...)
 
Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 2456]