http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/message/8999
 and
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/message/9008

>Mystery Illness is NOT ECE

>But - we still don't know what it is.
>
>I heard from MSU today, the tissue sent in tested negative for
>coronavirus. They did find coccidia in the intestines (which my
>regular pathologist had not found), despite my having run samples
>in the double digits checking for coccidia, all of which had been
>negative. I'll be checking again, repeatedly, but honestly am having
>trouble fitting coccidia into the epidemiology of how the disease
>spread through my household, as well as the fact that the disease
>stopped without any treatment being done for coccidia. And pretty much
>stopped dead when I started an antiviral medication. At least one
>other house affected with the illness had also tested multiple times
>and come up negative.
>
>It is very possible that this was a virus of a different type, which
>led to immunosuppression and a bloom of coccidia in the ferret whose
>tissue was tested.
>
>The lab has asked for additional samples, so I'll be sending in tissue
>from another of the victims of the disease, and we'll see if anything
>else shows up, including coccidia in this one as well, which would
>make it more likely to have been a highly pathogenic variant of
>coccidia.
>
>I am glad that it's not ECE - but still stumped and frustrated as to
>what it truly was.
>
>Dr. Ruth

and in reply to someone asking if it might have been salmonella:

>Well, at least in my household, there is no uncooked food given to
>the ferrets, and I had a culture done specifically for Salmonella,
>which was negative.
>
>I have heard from someone privately who had a coccidiosis outbreak
>some years ago in which five ferrets were lost within 24 hours,
>thirteen total lost by the end of the outbreak, and the coccidia was
>only diagnosed by necropsy results - but that outbreak was only ended
>with aggressive treatment for the coccidia, which was not done in my
>household. So - I'm still stumped. We'll see what the next set of
>tissue tells us.
>
>Dr. Ruth

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 6210]