PATHOLOGY REPORT ATTACHED: HISTORY: This 5-year-old, female, captive bred ferret had an eight day history of mucoid enteritis that included melena over the last three days of the disease course. The ferret died. Necropsy showed severe inflammation of the duodenum and pancreas. CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS: Open. GROSS: Received in formalin are seven tissues to 3 cm. in greatest dimension that are processed in one block. MICROSCOPIC: Liver: Diffusely, hepatocytes have marked fatty change. Centrilobular veins are congested. Pancreas: The interstitium and the pancreatic parenchyma are suffused with extravasated blood. Kidney: Low numbers of tubules are necrotic. Blood vessels are congested, and extensive foci of hemorrhage are noted in the parenchyma. Intestine: One section contains luminal digested blood or bile. A separate section of intestine has superficial mucosal necrosis with crypt and villous regeneration and mild infiltrates of lymphocytes and plasma cells. Small foci of fibrin deposition and hemorrhage are also noted in the mucosa. Spleen: Small foci of hemorrhage are noted in the red pulp, and some of the macrophages contain hemosiderin. The following tissues are histologically within normal limits: stomach (autolyzed), adipose. DIAGNOSIS: 1. Severe hepatic lipidosis. 2. Acute segmental necrotizing enteritis, intestine. 3. Acute hemorrhage, pancreas, kidney, spleen. 4. Mild renal tubular necrosis. COMMENT: Hepatic lipidosis in this case was severe and likely associated with significant hepatic insufficiency. The extensive hemorrhage in a number of tissues may be due to coagulopathy associated with this process. This ferret also had segmental acute necrotizing enteritis. This lesion may have been due to stress-related erosion, bacterial overgrowth, or viral infection. The tissue is otherwise too autolyzed to further characterize. The melena detected in a separate section of intestine is likely due to the previously described intestinal lesion. The gastric mucosa was completely autolyzed, but there did not appear to be a significant inflammatory cell infiltrate in the stomach. The cause for the mucoid diarrhea described clinically could not be determined, but the clinical presentation is similar to that of enteric coronavirus infection of ferrets. This ferret did not appear to have the chronic form of inflammatory bowel disease that is commonly seen in ferrets. With the exception of autolysis and melena in the lumen of the intestine, this section of intestine was judged to be histologically within normal limits. ----------------------------- cobalt's rule: the smallest gecko will _always_ grab the biggest cricket. [Posted in FML issue 3713]