I have heard from one of the ferret expert veterinary pathologists who
I asked about C. difficile and ferrets.

Both pathologists spoke with each others and NEITHER has encountered
that species of Clostridium in ferrets, but one DID receive specimens
from a location where the treating vet suspected it because a great
many ferrets died and the treating vet might have given that as a
tentative diagnosis. Hopefully, the people understood "tentative". It
was NOT found in the specimens sent, BUT many vets do not realize that
with something like this possibility it is best to submit AT LEAST one
ENTIRE cadaver of a ferret who has passed (preferably more than one
when the illness could be a hard to find and rare one).

Nor has either encountered colitis in a ferret from C. difficile.

The final point made to me was that a fecal sample is a very poor and
unreliable way to come to a Clostridium diagnosis.

So, perhaps it is not impossible for a ferret to get C. difficile,
BUT it is NOT recorded in the literature in any ferrets anywhere (and
even cat and dog cases are terribly rare and under very special
circumstances), and two of the people who make up the more ferret-
expert three veterinary pathologists in the U.S. have never encountered
C. difficile in ferrets nor heard or read of anyone who reliably has
diagnosed it in ferrets. Now, Clostridium perfringens HAS been recorded
in ferrets at disease levels but it is incredibly, incredibly rare.
Yesterday's post went into how to reduce C. perfringens risk.

At this point worrying much about C. difficle in ferrets sounds pretty
well unwarranted, but it can not be written off as a rare possibility
currently. On that score the summary sentence received from the experts
is:

>I certainly will not exclude this, but I would want to see
>associated pathology too.

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/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)

[Posted in FML 6762]