I was at the symposium and returned around 1am Tues I let all my
ferrets out. When I took out Sam, I could tell he was ill. The sitters
report that they did not notice any thing wrong with Sam, he was
playing and active. Last visit Mon, mid-afternoon. Sam was a 3yr old
neutered Peterson's neutered male. He was not ill last Wed night late.
He initially presented with significant dehydration. wobbly when
walking. When I weighed him Tues morning he had lost 100 gms from
the previous week.

I took him to the vet Tues morn. He received 50cc fluids subq and then
she put him on an IV at 2cc/hr. He weaker, stopped eating on his own
took Carnivore care & turkey baby food. On Wed he became significantly
jaundiced. Blood work on Tues indicated bilirubin with hemolysis, acute
renal failure, elevated creatine and BUN. anemia. He had repeat blood
work on Wed and the following values rapidly worsened, T Bil, BUN,
Creatine, Phos. He had decreased PCV. TP on Tues was >10d but went to
normal at 6.8 the next day after hydration. She thought perhaps AIHA
(autoimmune ? anemia) but did not do a Coombs test(no time), Ultrasound
was done and the gall bladder and liver were clear, kidneys very white.
Liver was swollen but had good margins. On Wed his heart had paroxysmal
tachycardia, not present on Tues. US of heart showed this as well.

Necropsy was done and she sent samples of the right kidney, liver,
messentary, deuodenum (sp?) and the whole heart. Results will be back
in a couple of weeks. Visual was the organs were yellow, liver was
discolored, she said it looked gray. She made the comment that
everything looked swollen when she made the first incision and started
to pull out organs. Also of note he had a small, dime sized, irregular
shaped foreign body in his stomach, this piece had a very sharp point
on one side. The object appeared to be a very dark purple plastic
something. What we don't know, I have been unable to find the rest of
this even after much searching of the room he shared with his buddy.
The vet said this had not been present for long in his body because of
it's appearance and the location and she said it would have caused him
major problems had it traveled any further. We don't know what this is,
therefore, don't know if it could have had some toxic substance on it
but I can say I do not have poisons in my house, there are no household
cleaners in that room. Nothing new has been introduced in many weeks.

We are stumped, hoping the pathology will reveal a cause but I am
posting to see if anyone else has had a similar experience. If so
please email me. I am cross-posting this

Ann Hehl

[Posted in FML 5655]