Dear June:
 
>WE had a ferret show up at work yesterday, symptoms...pale mucous
>membranes, weak, swollen looking skin appeared to be bruised .  awake,
>but barely responsive.  could NOT get blood, veins kept collasping,
>finally cut a toenail, blood was kool aid like.  He was not bleeding out
>of anywhere, he died within the hour.  He was 1 year old and came from a
>local pet shop.  DOES ANYONE have any idea, my vet is stumped and we are
>concerned that the other ferrets he was housed with may come down with
>this..
 
Tough to make a comment on this one - sounds like an aplastic anemia.
Without bloodwork, everything is just a guess.  A CBC helps to identify
the cause.  However, blood as thin as this indicates a very severe problem,
and even with a transfusion, the prognosis would be grave.
 
Aplastic anemia is common in unspayed females, but uncommon otherwise.
In young ferrets, I would first think about a bleeding gastric ulcer (did
you do a post?)  Otherwise you can think about leukemia, an idiosyncratic
reaction to a medication, and severe flea infestation.
 
I am hopeful that a post was done - this is a very unusual case.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM
[Posted in FML issue 3317]