BEGIN QUOTED NEW ABSTRACTS J Am Anim Hosp Assoc. 2009 Mar-Apr;45(2):97-101. Vestibular syndrome due to a choroid plexus papilloma in a ferret. van Zeeland Y, Schoemaker N, Passon-Vastenburg M, Kik M. Division of Avian and Exotic Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3584 DS, The Netherlands; Dierenarts Specialisten Amsterdam, Weesperzijde 147, Amsterdam, 1091 ET, The Netherlands. A 6-year-old, castrated male ferret (Mustela putorius furo) was presented with progressive neurological signs consisting of a right- sided head tilt and ataxia. Neurological examination revealed hemiparesis and absence of proprioception on the right side, consistent with central vestibular syndrome. Measurement of blood glucose excluded hypoglycemia due to insulinoma. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography revealed the presence of an intracranial mass, consistent with either granuloma or neoplasia. Palliative treatment with prednisolone yielded no improvement. At postmortem examination, a final diagnosis of a choroid plexus papilloma originating from the fourth ventricle was made. This is the first report of such a tumor in a ferret. PMID: 19258423 http://www.jaaha.org/cgi/content/full/45/2/97 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19258423 --- Vet Pathol. 2009 Mar;46(2):325-8. Alcian blue and pyronine y histochemical stains permit assessment of multiple parameters in pulmonary disease models. Meyerholz DK, Rodgers J, Castilow EM, Varga SM. Department of Pathology, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, 145 Medical Research Center, Iowa City, IA 52242 (USA). Utilization of a combined Alcian Blue and Pyronine Y histochemical method for the assessment of multiple parameters in the respiratory tract of various species is described. Acidic mucins were deep blue (sialylated mucins), red (sulfated mucins), or variably purple (mixture of sialylated/sulfated mucins), and differential mucus production was readily detected in a murine respiratory syncytial virus vaccine model of pulmonary inflammation. Elastic fibers stained red in the walls of pulmonary arteries, connecting airways, alveolar septa, and subpleural interstitium. Mast cells had red to red-purple granular cytoplasmic staining. Nuclei were ubiquitously counterstained pale blue. Representative staining was detected in tissues from multiple species, including inbred mice, rats, ferrets, cats, dogs, sheep, and pigs. The fluorescent property of the stained tissues offers additional modalities with which to analyze tissue sections. This histochemical technique detects multiple critical parameters in routine paraffin sections of lung tissue, reduces the need for repeated serial sectioning and staining, and is cost-effective and simple to perform. PMID: 19261646 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19261646 END QUOTED NEW ABSTRACTS There are also some recent brain research and vocal fold scarring research that didn't seem really likely to be useful here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ and morbillavirus work designed to know more about measles but unfortunately involving CDV which hopefully will at least learn more about CDV and control: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19203105 On that note: I recently was asked about Vitamins D3 and A in ferrets vs. in humans. This is a topic I've discussed with a couple of people who have doctorates in veterinary nutrition. Humans, who are descended from diurnal (daytime) activity beings without a large amount of organ meat in the diet more easily can wind up with an overdose of A but too little D. Ferrets are the opposite. They are descended from crepuscular (dawn and dusk) activity burrow dwellers who were used to getting their fair share of livers and other high A level foods. Ferrets who get too much D3 are like dogs in that they can develop hypercalcemia problems as a result from what I have learned from those experts. (On reading the symptoms some people have attributed to too much A in the past in a few posts some just sound like the ferrets got more oil/fat than their small intestines could digest and uptake, and others sound like too much D3, rather than like too much A.) Here is one way that enough dietary Vitamin A could prove useful for ferrets: BEGIN QUOTED ABSTRACT J Nutr. 2007 Aug;137(8):1916-22. Disease manifestations of canine distemper virus infection in ferrets are modulated by vitamin A status. Rodeheffer C, von Messling V, Milot S, Lepine F, Manges AR, Ward BJ. McGill University Health Centre Research Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Montreal General Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada. The measles virus (MV) causes half a million childhood deaths annually. Vitamin A supplements significantly reduce measles- associated mortality and morbidity. The mechanisms whereby vitamin A acts against MV are not understood and currently there is no satisfactory small animal model for MV infection. We report on the development of a ferret model to study antiviral activity of vitamin A against canine distemper virus (CDV). CDV is closely related to MV at the molecular level and distemper in ferrets mimics measles in humans. We infected vitamin A-replete (control) and vitamin A-depleted ferrets with CDV and assessed the ability of high-dose vitamin A supplements to influence CDV disease. In control ferrets, CDV infection caused fever, rash, conjunctivitis, cough, coryza, and diarrhea. In contrast, control ferrets that were given 30 mg of vitamin A did not develop typical distemper after infection and exhibited only a mild rash. The supplement did not negatively affect ferret health and resulted in a 100% increase in serum and liver vitamin A concentrations. We also found that profound vitamin A deficiency is inducible in ferrets and can be rapidly reversed upon high-dose vitamin A supplementation. Vitamin A deficiency caused anorexia, diarrhea, cataracts, behavioral abnormalities, and ultimately death, with or without CDV infection. All ferrets that received vitamin A supplements, however, recovered uneventfully from CDV infection. These results replicate many aspects of the observations of vitamin A therapy in humans with measles and suggest that CDV infection in ferrets is an appropriate model for the study of the antiviral mechanism of vitamin A. PMID: 17634264 END QUOTE with the COMPLETE and FREE text here: http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/137/8/1916 That one has been mentioned in the FHL before (and perhaps I carried the abstract to the FML but I am not sure) but I think this may be the first time that it is fully available for free. Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html [Posted in FML 6265]