ECE and fecal tests: DO remember that regular vets can NOT, at this
stage of the game, test for ECE. There are hopes for sometime having an
affordable test available and hopefully even a vaccine, but the current
test is the only that is done by Dr. Matti Kiupel's university research
group and is done when they are seeking more samples. These are NOT easy
research problems which is why it is taking so long. That said, there
are MANY possible causes for runs so fecal tests make complete sense, and
any new ferret should have one, anyway, as should ones which go outside
or live in a household with other animals that go outside.
>I have gotten 4 of my 6 ferrets from petstores and have never had one
>case of ECE.
Kits tend toward few symptoms so it is possible that folks who have had
ferrets for only a few years may have all ferrets who have contracted it
as kits but the people just don't know. Before assuming that this must
be a good thing, do recall that we do NOT know how many later diseases
such an experience might predispose a ferret toward having. IBD appears
to at times be related to ECE damage, some very serious illnesses and
some malignancies have viral triggers (as appears to be the case with a
different viral form for lymphoma in ferrets, etc.
Weight gain with less activity: time for a good vet check and testing.
If the weight gain is from acsites then among the possibilities are
cardiomyopathy, kidney disease, and liver disease, and you do not want
to delay treatment for these. Sometimes lymphoma can look like this.
Adrenal neoplasia can cause fat gain and sometimes also activity
reduction.
>I have a question, you mentioned those with illnesses can't be vaccinated,
>could you go into more detail on that for some new ferret owners & myself.
>As I understand it, as a ferret gets older, and a high percentage end up
>with adrenal or pancreatic tumors , it is not a good idea to vaccinate,
>also as a ferret gets older, say 7 years and up, it effects them
>differently and could even knock down the immune system and make them ill.
We've vaccinated 8 and 9 year ones with no problems. The ones we don't
vaccinate are chosen in discussions with their treating vets. For
example, we have a boy who is only 5 but is on chemotherapy. He can't be
vaccinated. IT IS AN INDIVIDUAL THING. Rather than assuming that over
a certain age that vaccinations should be stopped talk with the treating
vet when vax are soon to come up and find out which ones to skip that
time around. Like many other people we time our vax so that distemper
and rabies are given about 6 months apart; it means that we can also do
the 6 month check-up testing for the older ones at the same time.
As I repeat so often: I'm not a vet.
>Someone had posted about rabies being required by the state of Florida.
>It is my understanding (per local vets), that this is being reviewed.
Years ago a Floridian posted about the legislation on this score. You
should be able to find it in the FML archives.
WS: first off, a number of the things people have been listing here as
classic WS symptoms (like knee or belly spots, jaw opening size, etc.)
are NOT but have instead been suppositions of some breeders or ferret
lovers, and might be related or not. Call up some WS medical sites and
read, please. Secondly, what ferrets have MAY be WS, but it may INSTEAD
be a different Neural Crest Pigment Deprivation allele type. If you go
into the FHL and FML archives you will find at least one excellent article
on this by geneticist, Dr. Brett Middleton. WS symptoms have variable
expression (Some things may or may not show up in varying degrees.) and
among the normal symptoms are pigment deprived head or forelock, widely
spaced eyes, deafness or hearing reduction. Some variants have additional
class features such as intestinal innervation problems that can result in
dangerous levels of constipation.
[Posted in FML issue 3801]
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