I don't think that I have never heard of pyothorax happening in ferrets
before.
> Pyothorax in a ferret. 1998. Fisher, P.G. Exotic Pet Practice,
> 1998, v. 3 (12) , p. 92-93.
> Descriptors: case reports, surgery, treatment, thorax.
OKAY! While I continue to look we have a consultant for you, perhaps.
Peter G Fisher is at Pet Care Veterinary Hospital in Vera Beach, VA.
Contact info at: http://www.petcarevabeach.com/index.html
It is a problem more often encountered in cats. There winds up being an
accumulation of pus in the thorax, usually do to a bacterial infection.
This ferret was not given unpasteurized milk, was it? Are the teeth bad?
That has been postulated as a possible cause in cats. Foreign bodies
that migrate to the chest have been implicated. Chest wounds, especially
bites, are the most common cause. In cats some common causes are
Pasteurella, Staphylococcus, Nocardia, or Bacteroides. In dogs
Actinomyces has been found in such cases, ditto E. coli. Others have
been encountered. See the vet URL below from Australia.
The accumulation can make it very hard for the heart or lungs to function
and it is difficult to treat, and the bacterial infection causes toxins
to distribute, the combination often resulting in death in cats. (I
always hate having to give that sort of news. I apologize. Yesterday
I had to tell someone something sad, too. It hurts me, too; I hate it.)
Are they sure that it is pyothorax and not a mass from lymphoma/
lymphosarcoma?
Pyothorax is not in any of my ferret vet texts. I am digging elsewhere.
Can the vet drain it? With cats the treatment includes removing as much
of that pus as can be safely removed and treating the infection. Having
a chest tube in place also allows the level of accumulation of pus and
fluid to be monitored and that can give information about how successful
the current treatments being tried are, plus a sample of the pus should
be cultured by a lab which also knows of any antibiotic allergy the
individual has. That way they can first find out which bacterium it
is -- which helps point out which antibiotics are most likely to be
successful -- and then can see which of those the bacterium may have
antibiotic resistance to which further helps the vet select the most
effective antibiotic. Meanwhile, your vet may try a broad spectrum
antibiotic know to be effective often against the most common culprits,
given the critical situation.
In cats the drainage tube is usually in place, with hospitalization
for one to 2 weeks, and treatment goes on for 4 to 8 weeks. During
the hospitalization if possible the antibiotics are by IV.
If the ferret makes it there may be chest adhesions afterward which limit
breathing so the ferret will need a home able to care for special needs
if that happens. According to Dr. Bruce Williams ferrets don't usually
get adhesions, but there certainly are exceptions.
You can read about this in cats in a range of locations including:
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_pyothorax.html
(VERY COMPLETE SO YOU WILL WANT TO READ THIS.)
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?
cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12420830&dopt=Abstract>
(Your vet can go to J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2002 Jul 1;221(1):86-92.)
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=2029
echos the earlier vet article
http://www.theveterinarian.com.au/clinicalreview/article395.asp
(ALSO VERY COMPLETE AND NAMES SOME FURTHER BACTERIA GENERA SEEN; A
MUST-READ)
-- Sukie (not a vet)
Ferret Health List co-moderator
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives fan
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
replacing
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
International Ferret Congress advisor
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 5136]
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