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Author wrote:
>Pippin is my 4-5 year old MF sable male - he is a rescue so the age is
>a guess.  The vet noticed slight hair thinning at his vaccination appt.
>(possible adrenal symptoms).  I was concerned about some bad poops and
>the vet did a culture.  We received the test results and Pippin has been
>diagnosed with Campylobacter.  It was explained as a primary GI pathogen
>(or possibly secondary) that is potentially contagious.  This could
>explain the bad poops and why Pippin has seemed more tired lately.  The
>vet prescribed Clavomox - .25 cc's 2x per day.
>
>I think I should separate him from the girls but I don't want to cause
>him any extra stress.  Anyone have any experience with Campylobacter?
>Should I try to give him chicken baby food to ease digestion?  I'm
>currently feeding them a mix of Totally Ferret, Zupreem & the Ferret
>Store brand food.  I'm still in my research phase.  Any advice is
>appreciated.
 
I would investigate this a bit further.  True Campylobacter infection
is extremely uncommon in ferrets, and most scientific reports are from
experimental infection.  Over the last ten years, however, two distinct
diseases were originally thought to be caused by Campylobacter, but
ultimately, new organisms similar to Campylobacter were identified -
Helicobacter and Ielobacter (which causes proliferative colitis.) It
would be very unusual for either to be routinely cultured on a fecal
sample.  Treatment with Clavamox by itself would not be expect to help
either one.
 
Possibly a peek at the actual culture report may shed additional detail
on these findings.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 4239]