To Carolyn Kinsey:
 
>We turned to a book called
>"Biology and Diseases of the Ferret", by James G.  Fox, wherein he
>discribes something called 'ferret bloat syndrome'....
 
        A similar problem with Clostridium perfringens was seen in the
black-footed ferret kits at the National Zoological park.  Clostridium is a
gas-producing bacteria (which can also cause severe damage to the stomcah
lining due to elaboration of toxins.  The kits had massively bloated
stomachs due to the tremendous gas buildup.  Your dosage seems to be
appropriate.  However, all of these kits were found dead due to the rapid
action of Clostridium toxins....
 
>>As to the prepucial tumors, preceiving that they are actually on the
>loose sheeth of skin rather than the penis itself, in my experience this
>is not good news.  We've removed a few of these; they tend to recur and
>are eventually found to be reflective of tumors you cannot see, in our
>case, of the liver.  I should add, that the tumor case was not the same
>one as the bloat.
 
        In my experience, this does not seem to be the case with domestic
ferrets.  The vast majority of preputial tumors are benign, and many are
simple cystic sweat glands.  I have seen a few aggressive malignancies, but
the all tended to metastasize to the lymph nodes; I haven't seen liver
metastasis.
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP
[Posted in FML issue 1409]