>From:    Mark Burgess <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: [Another vet's take on the "mystery disease"]
>
>In recent months we have seen a number of cases of a new and clinically
>unique disease in young ferrets, aged 5 to 12 months...
>The patients exhibit fever, muscle pain and reluctance to move, and
>severe depression.  Moderate to severe anemias often occur, but then
>suddenly may resolve.  Some patients exhibit lymph node enlargement,
>often in only one node.  The main hallmark of this disease, however, is
>the extreme white cell (neutrophil) counts in these patients...
 
This sounds exactly like what my Echo had when he was about 4-5 months
old (about a year ago).  The only thing my vet could find wrong was the
extremely elevated white blood count.  She said the only thing she could
think of it being was juvenile lymphoma.
 
It started with hind leg weakness and we thought he had hurt himself
playing...he was *very* energetic.  Then he could not even stand up and
started to become slightly lethargic.  This progressed to the point where
he could not even drag himself and he was very lethargic, even though he
never lost his appetite.  We tried several different rounds of
antibiotics and nothing helped at all.  He didn't seem to be in any
pain, but could not stand or walk at all and was still lethargic.  We
considered euthanasia, but wanted to try all possibilities first.  We
started him on essiac tea and red clover extract.  Within a couple of
weeks he was trying to stand up and within a month he was walking on his
own.  I'm happy to say that he is now a happy healthy energetic furball.
He's spoiled rotten from all the attention he got when he was sick and he
just loves to bully all the other furkids :)
 
Kim
Rogue's Den Ferret Rescue
[Posted in FML issue 4409]