Dear Joy Lenay:
 
>Abu past away early this morning from complications of megaesophagus???
>I'm questioning this because I don't believe he died from malnutrition
>because he gained about four ounces back this past week and he wasn't
>throwing up as much.  Yesterday he went down hill real fast, he started
>breathing heavy and you could hear fluid?  in his lungs.  I'm guessing
>aspiration pneumonia like described in Mike Janke's web site.  I'm waiting
>for a call from my local vet to see.
 
Mike's page is right on - I had the opportunity to visit it, and I can't
summarize it better myself (so I'll just endorse it and hope everyone goes
over to read it.)
 
I agree with your suspicion - aspiration pneumonia is actually the usual
cause of death in most megaesophagus cases, be they ferret, dog, or other.
These animals regurgitate all the time, and have even less control over
it than the rest of us, as there is no muscle tone in the esophagus.  If
they inhale during the process of regurgitation, it goes right down into
the lungs.  Unfortunately, only a little bit of this material is life
threatening - its full of bacteria, digestive juices, and other stuff that
shouldn't be in the lungs.
 
REgarding aspiration pneumonia - I see this a fair amount in chronically
ill animals who don't have megaesophagus.  Why?  Vigorous syringe feeding.
That is why I'm a baby food fanatic rather than Duck Soup - anything that
you don't have to feed with a syringe is okay by me.  Even antibiotics,
when instilled into the lungs, do a lot of damage.  Be careful with those
syringes and droppers - don't make a bad situation worse.
 
However, as I said before, Abu was in pretty dire straits - this is not
a disease with any known treatment in ferrets (there are treatments in
humans and dogs).  All we do is manage as best we can, and stave off the
inevitable as long as we can.  I know that you did everything in your
power, so you shouldn't have any regrets on that account - I'm sure Abu
didn't....
 
With kindest regards in a most difficult time,
Bruce Williams
[Posted in FML issue 3202]