>My ferret ( Stubby 5 y/o male rescue) recently had surgery for several
>problems to include insulinoma, adrenal and a couple enlarged lymph nodes
>and via a biopsy of the liver during the surgery was diagnosed with
>cholangiohepatitis.  According to my vet he is seeing more and more of
>this type of hepatitis.  Once Stubby recovers from surgery he will likely
>be put on prednisone and continue with an antibiotic.  Has anybody heard
>of cholangiohepatitis in ferrets??  I would be interested in the cause and
>possible prognosis for a ferret with this illness.
 
Aha - a night of incidental pathological findings - first adrenal cysts in
the previous post, and now this.
 
Cholangiohepatitis, or portal hepatitis is a common incidental finding
associated with chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, and
rare is the middle aged animal that doesn't have it to one degree or
another.  In the vast majority of cases, the inflammation is mild, and
chronic, and is the result of either Helicobacter infection of the stomach,
or previous exposure to ferret coronavirus (although any GI illness can
cause it over the long term.)
 
It is not that there is an increased incidence of this finding, as it is
fairly uniform over most middle-aged ferrets, it is probably just that
the pathologist which your vet uses is becoming more attuned to it.
 
In the vast majority of cases, I consider it to be a background lesion,
or a normal finding for older ferrets.  It is only when the finding is
considered severe, or the inflammatory infiltrate contains a predominance
of neutrophils (indicating an active bacterial infection of the gut and/or
the biliary tree), that we should become concerned at all.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce H. Williams, DVM, DACVP
 
Join the Ferret Health List at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list
 
[Sukie's note: ECE is a corona virus disease.]
[Posted in FML issue 3435]