I live in Indianapolis, and we have 2 vets that are known to handle
ferrets and other "exotics".  One of them, I like and respect, the other,
I feel is a quack.  (I get the impression that my vet agrees on this
point).  The quack, told us that a snake I'd taken in was perfectly fine.
She was so worked up about the bedding that the snake was on that I don't
know that she ever even looked into our concerns about his mouth.  The
same snake was later taken to the new vet, who did find that he had a
mouth, possibly systemic, infection.  Snake is now on meds.  Personal
experience ends there.  I've also heard that Quack has refused to allow
ferrets into her clinic for fear of them brining in ECE.
 
There is a reason for all of this background information.  A woman that I
know recently got two new ferrets.  less than 24 hours later, her 6 y/o
ferret started bleeding from his rectum, and was helped across the bridge
a few days later.  Now, the vet tat I don't trust says that the new
ferrets were ECE carriers, and the older ferret came down with an
extremely severe case of ECE; she's seen 4 of those cases recently.
I don't recall having heard of bleeding from the rectum having any
association with ECE.  Any thoughts?  I'm just trying to look into this
for my friend.  Not looking for clinical information, but just was this
really ECE, or was the other vet using that as an excuse/cover for her
missing a diagnosis in the older ferret?
 
Thanks,
Denise
[Posted in FML issue 3627]