Post by Sherry on Jul 25, 2011 18:29:55 GMT -5
I'm not sure how many of you remember the horrible virus that went through the ferret world in 2008-2009. At first it was thought to be a very virulent mutation of ECE. That was ruled out. What it was has never been discovered. Best guesses where a variant on a flu virus, which lowers the immune system allowing a major bloom of the coccidia.
Symptoms were extreme dehydration, sometimes having severe watery diarrhea, frequently followed by death within 8 hours. Here is a post by Dr. Ruth Heller in the FHL:
I initially posted this last night on the ferretbreeders network. Since then
I have spoken to a couple of pathologists, including the one who read the
histopathology and Dr. Matti Kuipel at MSU, both of whom are in agreement that
this seems like ECE. It is not yet confirmed 100%, but odds are high. We will
be sending confirmatory tests to MSU, but won't get results for at least
several days. Also, a few of the ferrets have had some green diarrhea, but it
is
not the "green slime" that is characteristic of classic ECE.
This is a heads up - don't think it can't be ECE just because the stool isn't
green anymore. Make sure your vet considers ECE.
Dr. Ruth
Okay, folks, many of you are already aware of this, but quite a few of you
are not. In the past few weeks, we have had many, many ferrets get sick, and
we've lost eleven of them so far. Initially, I thought we had a nasty flu
virus, but as more and more ferrets got sick and didn't get better no matter
what
we did, I started looking for other things.
Right now it looks like a mutated strain of ECE, although that has not yet
been confirmed by electron microscopy (I'm still looking for someone to do
that!). Histopathology (which I got back about half an hour ago) is consistent
with ECE. Stool cultures for bacterial infections are negative, repeated exams
for coccidia are negative. Post-mortem exams on these ferrets don't show all
that much other than gastrointestinal inflammation and some ulceration.
I have NO idea where this came from - I have not seen any ferrets with
similar signs in the hospital. But ECE is a coronavirus and they are known to
mutate on their own quite happily, so it could easily have simply done that. I
have heard of a couple of cases of ferrets with similar symptoms, but it's not
known yet whether it is truly the same thing.
Symptoms are:
-from happy, healthy, bouncy ferret to cold/flat/extremely dehydrated ferret
with or without bloody diarrhea in the span of less than eight hours
-it is extremely difficult to rehydrate these ferrets - some of them have
been getting 200 or more cc of fluids per day
-some of them will eat on their own, others will not
-copious diarrhea, liquid, progressing to bloody
-NO vomiting
-the diarrhea is NOT green
-death can be as rapid as eight hours after first onset of clinical signs
-some ferrets have broken with a bit of diarrhea, but have not shown the
other signs and have recovered uneventfully
We have gotten several severely affected ferrets through this to full
recovery.
<list of deceased, recovered, and ill ferrets deleted>
Dr. Ruth
*****************************************
Here were some of the treatments tried:
Someone asked me to post what we've been treating with and what seems to
work. Sadly...
Nothing really seems to be working well. We're doing massive doses of
fluids, everybody is on amoxi, clavamox and/or Baytril - doesn't seem to make a
difference which antibiotic or combination of antibiotics. Everyone is on
Carafate, which doesn't seem to be preventing the ulcers, but may be helping
some.
I've tried pred on a few, made no difference, and may have aggravated the
ulceration. The blander the diet is, the more formed the stools seem to be, but
that's only true if they're not bleeding. I've not tried flagyl yet, as these
guys are so stressed that I haven't wanted to add it in.
I have seen some of these guys with pronounced peripheral edema and swelling.
We're feeding every two to three hours, giving carafate with each feeding,
and fluids on an as-needed basis.
We've lost another one today, and yet another one got sick last night.
I have heard via private email of a couple of outbreaks that look similar to
this in Maryland and in Illinois.
This looks like it might be big. I wish, as much as I hate what's going on
in my house, that it had just been us.
Dr. Ruth
*****************************************
I wrote to Dr. Ruth a few days ago to see if it was ever discovered what was behind it. Her best guess was the flu type virus, since Tamiflu combined with IV fluids to combat the dehydration actually started saving some of the affected ferrets:
What virus was involved was never determined, although given the help that Tamiflu was, I still suspect that a flu was involved. However, since that time I have seen multiple patients with a highly aggressive coccidial variant (and am still seeing them), and there have been other outbreaks in different facilities. The paper detailing this is in the process of being published at this time. Dr. Matti Kuipel did present on it at this years IFC, and I think his notes are still available on-line, but I don't have the link handy.
Take care,
Dr. Ruth Heller
********************************
As you will have noted, there is now a very aggressive form of coccidia hitting. This is, however, treatable.
Here are some more quotes on this mystery illness:
Got this quoted from fml:
We are experiencing
something very similar here in Alberta, Canada. We've lost seven
ferrets so far though now that we know the symptoms and are getting
veterinary treatment sooner some are recovering. They only difference
in the symptoms is that we are seeing vomiting as well. We've been
pulling out our hair trying to figure out what it is. Necropsies
suggest it is a virus but haven't been able to isolate what virus
we're dealing with.
Once I can find the time to figure out yahoo and get on it I'll post
more there.
Barb Hoult
Alberta Ferret Society
President
****************************8
Another from the FHL:
From the FML; dosages for Tamiflu:
Re: Tamiflu Rx
The Tamiflu dose that I have for ferrets is:
a 10 mg/ml suspension - the suspension that you get in the pharmacy is
12 mg/ml, but it can be reconstituted to 10 pretty easily by adding a
couple extra ml's of water when it's mixed.
Give 0.1 ml per pound of ferret twice a day for five to ten days.
Very, very different from the dose listed in the earlier message for
the wildlife, folks, be careful.
Results are in, its not ECE
The following was copied from the ferret health list today.
Mystery Illness is NOT ECE
But - we still don't know what it is.
I heard from MSU today, the tissue sent in tested negative for coronavirus.
They did find coccidia in the intestines (which my regular pathologist had not
found), despite my having run samples in the double digits checking for
coccidia, all of which had been negative. I'll be checking again, repeatedly,
but
honestly am having trouble fitting coccidia into the epidemiology of how the
disease spread through my household, as well as the fact that the disease
stopped without any treatment being done for coccidia. And pretty much stopped
dead when I started an antiviral medication. At least one other house affected
with the illness had also tested multiple times and come up negative.
It is very possible that this was a virus of a different type, which led to
immunosuppression and a bloom of coccidia in the ferret whose tissue was tested.
The lab has asked for additional samples, so I'll be sending in tissue from
another of the victims of the disease, and we'll see if anything else shows up,
including coccidia in this one as well, which would make it more likely to
have been a highly pathogenic variant of coccidia.
I am glad that it's not ECE - but still stumped and frustrated as to what it
truly was.
Dr. Ruth
Symptoms were extreme dehydration, sometimes having severe watery diarrhea, frequently followed by death within 8 hours. Here is a post by Dr. Ruth Heller in the FHL:
I initially posted this last night on the ferretbreeders network. Since then
I have spoken to a couple of pathologists, including the one who read the
histopathology and Dr. Matti Kuipel at MSU, both of whom are in agreement that
this seems like ECE. It is not yet confirmed 100%, but odds are high. We will
be sending confirmatory tests to MSU, but won't get results for at least
several days. Also, a few of the ferrets have had some green diarrhea, but it
is
not the "green slime" that is characteristic of classic ECE.
This is a heads up - don't think it can't be ECE just because the stool isn't
green anymore. Make sure your vet considers ECE.
Dr. Ruth
Okay, folks, many of you are already aware of this, but quite a few of you
are not. In the past few weeks, we have had many, many ferrets get sick, and
we've lost eleven of them so far. Initially, I thought we had a nasty flu
virus, but as more and more ferrets got sick and didn't get better no matter
what
we did, I started looking for other things.
Right now it looks like a mutated strain of ECE, although that has not yet
been confirmed by electron microscopy (I'm still looking for someone to do
that!). Histopathology (which I got back about half an hour ago) is consistent
with ECE. Stool cultures for bacterial infections are negative, repeated exams
for coccidia are negative. Post-mortem exams on these ferrets don't show all
that much other than gastrointestinal inflammation and some ulceration.
I have NO idea where this came from - I have not seen any ferrets with
similar signs in the hospital. But ECE is a coronavirus and they are known to
mutate on their own quite happily, so it could easily have simply done that. I
have heard of a couple of cases of ferrets with similar symptoms, but it's not
known yet whether it is truly the same thing.
Symptoms are:
-from happy, healthy, bouncy ferret to cold/flat/extremely dehydrated ferret
with or without bloody diarrhea in the span of less than eight hours
-it is extremely difficult to rehydrate these ferrets - some of them have
been getting 200 or more cc of fluids per day
-some of them will eat on their own, others will not
-copious diarrhea, liquid, progressing to bloody
-NO vomiting
-the diarrhea is NOT green
-death can be as rapid as eight hours after first onset of clinical signs
-some ferrets have broken with a bit of diarrhea, but have not shown the
other signs and have recovered uneventfully
We have gotten several severely affected ferrets through this to full
recovery.
<list of deceased, recovered, and ill ferrets deleted>
Dr. Ruth
*****************************************
Here were some of the treatments tried:
Someone asked me to post what we've been treating with and what seems to
work. Sadly...
Nothing really seems to be working well. We're doing massive doses of
fluids, everybody is on amoxi, clavamox and/or Baytril - doesn't seem to make a
difference which antibiotic or combination of antibiotics. Everyone is on
Carafate, which doesn't seem to be preventing the ulcers, but may be helping
some.
I've tried pred on a few, made no difference, and may have aggravated the
ulceration. The blander the diet is, the more formed the stools seem to be, but
that's only true if they're not bleeding. I've not tried flagyl yet, as these
guys are so stressed that I haven't wanted to add it in.
I have seen some of these guys with pronounced peripheral edema and swelling.
We're feeding every two to three hours, giving carafate with each feeding,
and fluids on an as-needed basis.
We've lost another one today, and yet another one got sick last night.
I have heard via private email of a couple of outbreaks that look similar to
this in Maryland and in Illinois.
This looks like it might be big. I wish, as much as I hate what's going on
in my house, that it had just been us.
Dr. Ruth
*****************************************
I wrote to Dr. Ruth a few days ago to see if it was ever discovered what was behind it. Her best guess was the flu type virus, since Tamiflu combined with IV fluids to combat the dehydration actually started saving some of the affected ferrets:
What virus was involved was never determined, although given the help that Tamiflu was, I still suspect that a flu was involved. However, since that time I have seen multiple patients with a highly aggressive coccidial variant (and am still seeing them), and there have been other outbreaks in different facilities. The paper detailing this is in the process of being published at this time. Dr. Matti Kuipel did present on it at this years IFC, and I think his notes are still available on-line, but I don't have the link handy.
Take care,
Dr. Ruth Heller
********************************
As you will have noted, there is now a very aggressive form of coccidia hitting. This is, however, treatable.
Here are some more quotes on this mystery illness:
Got this quoted from fml:
We are experiencing
something very similar here in Alberta, Canada. We've lost seven
ferrets so far though now that we know the symptoms and are getting
veterinary treatment sooner some are recovering. They only difference
in the symptoms is that we are seeing vomiting as well. We've been
pulling out our hair trying to figure out what it is. Necropsies
suggest it is a virus but haven't been able to isolate what virus
we're dealing with.
Once I can find the time to figure out yahoo and get on it I'll post
more there.
Barb Hoult
Alberta Ferret Society
President
****************************8
Another from the FHL:
From the FML; dosages for Tamiflu:
Re: Tamiflu Rx
The Tamiflu dose that I have for ferrets is:
a 10 mg/ml suspension - the suspension that you get in the pharmacy is
12 mg/ml, but it can be reconstituted to 10 pretty easily by adding a
couple extra ml's of water when it's mixed.
Give 0.1 ml per pound of ferret twice a day for five to ten days.
Very, very different from the dose listed in the earlier message for
the wildlife, folks, be careful.
Results are in, its not ECE
The following was copied from the ferret health list today.
Mystery Illness is NOT ECE
But - we still don't know what it is.
I heard from MSU today, the tissue sent in tested negative for coronavirus.
They did find coccidia in the intestines (which my regular pathologist had not
found), despite my having run samples in the double digits checking for
coccidia, all of which had been negative. I'll be checking again, repeatedly,
but
honestly am having trouble fitting coccidia into the epidemiology of how the
disease spread through my household, as well as the fact that the disease
stopped without any treatment being done for coccidia. And pretty much stopped
dead when I started an antiviral medication. At least one other house affected
with the illness had also tested multiple times and come up negative.
It is very possible that this was a virus of a different type, which led to
immunosuppression and a bloom of coccidia in the ferret whose tissue was tested.
The lab has asked for additional samples, so I'll be sending in tissue from
another of the victims of the disease, and we'll see if anything else shows up,
including coccidia in this one as well, which would make it more likely to
have been a highly pathogenic variant of coccidia.
I am glad that it's not ECE - but still stumped and frustrated as to what it
truly was.
Dr. Ruth