PATHOLOGY REPORT ATTACHED:
 
HISTORY:
This 5-year-old, female, captive bred ferret had an eight day history of
mucoid enteritis that included melena over the last three days of the
disease course.  The ferret died.  Necropsy showed severe inflammation of
the duodenum and pancreas.
 
CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS:  Open.
 
GROSS:
Received in formalin are seven tissues to 3 cm. in greatest dimension
that are processed in one block.
 
MICROSCOPIC:
Liver: Diffusely, hepatocytes have marked fatty change.  Centrilobular
veins are congested.  Pancreas: The interstitium and the pancreatic
parenchyma are suffused with extravasated blood.  Kidney: Low numbers of
tubules are necrotic.  Blood vessels are congested, and extensive foci of
hemorrhage are noted in the parenchyma.  Intestine: One section contains
luminal digested blood or bile.  A separate section of intestine has
superficial mucosal necrosis with crypt and villous regeneration and
mild infiltrates of lymphocytes and plasma cells.  Small foci of fibrin
deposition and hemorrhage are also noted in the mucosa.  Spleen: Small
foci of hemorrhage are noted in the red pulp, and some of the macrophages
contain hemosiderin.  The following tissues are histologically within
normal limits: stomach (autolyzed), adipose.
 
DIAGNOSIS:
1. Severe hepatic lipidosis.
2. Acute segmental necrotizing enteritis, intestine.
3. Acute hemorrhage, pancreas, kidney, spleen.
4. Mild renal tubular necrosis.
 
COMMENT:
Hepatic lipidosis in this case was severe and likely associated with
significant hepatic insufficiency.  The extensive hemorrhage in a number
of tissues may be due to coagulopathy associated with this process.  This
ferret also had segmental acute necrotizing enteritis.  This lesion may
have been due to stress-related erosion, bacterial overgrowth, or viral
infection.  The tissue is otherwise too autolyzed to further characterize.
The melena detected in a separate section of intestine is likely due
to the previously described intestinal lesion.  The gastric mucosa was
completely autolyzed, but there did not appear to be a significant
inflammatory cell infiltrate in the stomach.  The cause for the mucoid
diarrhea described clinically could not be determined, but the clinical
presentation is similar to that of enteric coronavirus infection of
ferrets.  This ferret did not appear to have the chronic form of
inflammatory bowel disease that is commonly seen in ferrets.  With the
exception of autolysis and melena in the lumen of the intestine, this
section of intestine was judged to be histologically within normal limits.
 
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cobalt's rule: the smallest gecko will _always_ grab the biggest cricket.
[Posted in FML issue 3713]