I just wanted to thank everyone that responded to my request for
information about a parasite found in Tigger, a shelter ferret, about 3
weeks ago.
 
To share what we found, after Dr. Higgins did the needle aspirate and got
the lab results back, we discovered the lump on Tigger's foot contained a
worm.  It appears that, when the aspirate was done, it destroyed the worm,
causing a massive infection in his left front paw.  Antibiotics were used,
and when Dr. Higgins opened his paw to remove the worm, all that was found
was inflamed tissue.  Over the next two weeks, the swelling continued to go
down, and his paw is healing well.
 
A little bit about this parasite.... If you have a Fox Biology and Disease
of the Ferret, it is on Page 540.  For those who don't have a copy of this
book, I will paraphrase the info to pass on.  The Dracunculus medinensis is
a spirurid nematode.  This worm, can and does infect humans, the infective
route being through unfiltered drinking water, prevalent in central Africa,
southern regions of Russia, Packistan and India.
 
The cycle, as I understand it, is once the female releases her larvae, the
larvae (stage 1) are ingested by a copepod, which are one eyed organisms.
(Help me out here, any of you who may have studied this...) Here they
remain, until they are developed to the third stage, which is the infective
stage.  At this point, if these copepods are ingested by a human, (or in
this case wildlife or a pet, through a drink from a contaminated water
puddle or pond,) it completes the transmission back to the human or animal
host.  (This is a natural parasite of raccoons, weasles, and other
carnivores in North America.)
 
Once in the host, it develops into a worm - which may take longer than 12
months.  At this point, the female worm produces a 'dermal blister'.  If
there is contact with fresh water, (and I'm not sure how much 'contact' is
needed,) this dermal blister will rupture, and the female worm will emerge,
and release "tens of thousands of motile first-stage larvae".
 
This is not a common parasite, and the reason I'm posting this, is because
of the amount of time it took to get all the information to deal with
Tigger's paw.  This parasite showed up as a swelling, and stayed the same
in appearance for several months, before it began to enlarge.  Once it
surfaced, it was about the size of an average sized lima bean, under the
skin.  In the early stage, it will only look like an 'overall swelling' in
the area.  If you ever run across one in your fuzzy, they can show up on
the leg, foot, jaw, and possibly other places.  (I understand they live and
grow in the muscle until they mature and migrate to just under the skin, in
preparation for emerging.  I also understand they have a breathing hole.
However, I'm not sure where I got this impression, so I could be confusing
it with something else.)
 
This is a good reason NOT to allow your pets to drink from ponds or
puddles.  Since Tigger came to me at about 1 year of age through a
surrender to the local Humane Society, I don't know how or where he may
have been exposed to this.  I am going to check with them this week to see
if I can contact his former owner to find anything out.  I'll post more on
this at a later date.
 
Julie
West Central Ohio Ferret Shelter
[Posted in FML issue 2717]