ferretfreke
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder[/b]
Posts: 235
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Post by ferretfreke on Aug 12, 2010 21:46:43 GMT -5
Crap, my roommates and my ferrets have been hacking since the ferret show last month. I hadn't thought much about it yet cus they hack during the winter months once the furnace gets going if I don't run a humidifier. Their appetite/drinking/activity has all been normal as well so I wasnt too concerned. One of them is a RC, but he's 6 and I've had him for 3 years and no coughing til last month. So I don't think he came with it. I'm definately going to have my vet/boss look into it. Thanks for the info.
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ferretfreke
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder[/b]
Posts: 235
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Post by ferretfreke on Aug 12, 2010 22:53:05 GMT -5
Do they ALL have it? Koda is an RC, he coughs on occasion, but usually only when he is eating or getting into things. Usually he sneezes if anything. I don't have other ferts though so I don't know what is "normal." He seems healthy and happy. Does this bacteria affect humans? How much does that testing cost on average (I know it varies, but perhaps an estimate)? hurricanekatt, I'm planning on asking my boss/vet about this and he'll tell me what to put on an estimate and I will let you know what it runs at my clinic to give you an idea on the cost. We're in an area of the country that the vet bills tend to run a lot lower than other's tho, so I don't know how comparible it will be to your area.
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Post by kfarlee on Aug 12, 2010 23:15:55 GMT -5
Greetings. My name is Kevin Farlee. I'm the president of Washington Ferret Rescue & Shelter near Seattle WA. As it happens, my vet, Dr. Cathy Johnson-Delaney has been involved in the research on the mycoplasma. In fact, it was first isolated in a necropsy of my Kodie Since Dr. Cathy was president of the AEMV where the paper was presented, there's a good chance that she presented it. In this area, Real Canadian Ferrets are common, as the distributor of small exotic animals for the northwest exclusively carried RCF ferrets until recently. So, our shelter sees lots of them. The cough is really distinctive. It's a sharp hacking cough that comes in spells. In my experience, it is NOT highly contagious. None of my other 5 ferrets contracted it after living with Kodie for a year, and in our shelter, although we've had LOTS of ferrets from various breeders, we've never seen a ferret that wasn't from RCF have this issue. With over 90 ferrets in relatively close proximity, if it was that contagious, all of them would have it. I will ask Dr. Cathy when I see her on Saturday to see what she says. The last theory I heard was that this disease is usually contracted when the kits are babies, before the immune system is mature. We've never found anything that would completely get rid of it once they came down with it. Antibiotics will knock it down for awhile, but it comes back when you stop. Kevin Farlee President Washington Ferret Rescue & Shelter
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Post by sherrylynne on Aug 13, 2010 9:57:52 GMT -5
Thank you so much for clarifying a lot of data for us! I know I was under the impression it was very contagious. So, some good news, at least. Does Dr. Johnson-Delaney have any idea of what the long term repercussions are of this illness?
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Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
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Post by Emilee on Aug 13, 2010 10:42:26 GMT -5
That is GREAT to know that it seems to not be contagious! I know that in a few weeks I'm adding another ferret to the equation, so I was extremely worried about not getting this settled before he came. I'm going to bring Tootsie to the vet and get her opinion on what I should do. I really hate to have her go through a bronchoalveolar lavage if the vet doesn't think she has it. Even though it's a painless procedure, I will bawl my eyes out and I doubt I'll leave the vet's office while it's being done.
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Post by kfarlee on Aug 14, 2010 12:45:55 GMT -5
I'll be seeing Dr. Cathy today at the shelter, so I'll ask her about this presentation.
So far, we haven't found a way to get rid of it. Antibiotics will often knock it down but it eventually comes back. As I understand it, it's not exactly a bacterium, but a mycoplasma, which is a very primitive bacteria-like thing. Unfortunately it doesn't have the things which most antibiotics attack, so it's hard to kill. And of course, antibiotics have their own side effects as well.
We usually treat the cough with the Robitussin which has ONLY guaifenesin - their "chest congestion" type. You DON'T want the others which have additional drugs. Guaifenesin breaks up congestion and lets them cough the phlegm out.
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Post by tink80 on Aug 14, 2010 16:27:17 GMT -5
what's odd is my my two RCs don't have the cough but I have four other ferrets that have questionable background and two of them have coughing spells. one is a private bred, she had it mostly the first year she was here. we did bloods and xrays as i was sure she had an URI and nothing odd came back so we chalked it up to asthma. also, she is half angora and i have heard theories about extra fur in the nose causing symptoms like this. she very rarely does it now. we treated her with a round of pred and she was fine. of course we didn't test for this as i didn't know about it back then...it has slowly decreased and is only once in a great while. the second ferret that has a hacking cough it seems to be at night when she is laying down in the cage to go to bed i will hear her in the middle of the night. this ferret is not usually exposed to my RCs as they don't get along and are in separate playgroups however after quaranting for several weeks i never bothered to change clothes and of course i give all my ferrets kisses and cuddles and i'm sure i could have easily transferred it if it is contagious. she seems to feel fine though, very active, happy little girl. i've been thinking about it and one of my RCs was my very first ferret so he's been here since the start of it all and the other one has been here a little over a year, we got her last summer. i am going to keep updated and in contact with my vet about this. i am not planning on adding any other ferrets to my business anytime soon anyway (six is enough! lol) and i never do playdates or anything but it'll be good to know even if just for the fact my vet needs to take certain precautions while examining my ferrets if they are carriers or whatnot, i would not want to needlessly expose other ferrets to it. at this point, all my ferrets have been exposed to my RCs long enough it would not make a difference to isolate them at this point. but i will just make sure not to interact with any other/new ferrets, watch very closely for signs of infection, and keep up to date here on the internet for more findings and stay in contact with my vet and ask her suggestion. i am glad it does not seem to be a life threatening thing from what i've heard so far on this forum.
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Post by kfarlee on Aug 14, 2010 21:29:06 GMT -5
Just got back from the shelter. It was Dr. Cathy that gave the presentation, and in fact she let me read through the powerpoint that she used.
On contagiousness: It can be passed between ferrets, but typically when a ferret has a suppressed or undeveloped immune system, and is in very close proximity with a closed air system.
Like a breeder environment where you have lots of baby ferrets in a room with the adults which are infected.
So while it could be passed between adult ferrets, * It is far more likely to be passed when ferrets are babies * So far, it has ONLY been identified in ferrets from the Real Canadian Ferrets/CDC breeder. They have a single blue-green line tattoo in the right ear. They are only distributed in Eastern Canada, Japan, and until recently in the Northwest of the US (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska). They are no longer imported into the Northwest, as the distributor switched to Marshalls.
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Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
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Post by Emilee on Aug 15, 2010 8:00:36 GMT -5
Yeah, that makes sense. Tootsie is an RCF and I went across the border to get her in Edmonton, New Brunswick.
I'll try to get a video of her coughing sometime, as I'm just not sure.
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Darlene
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 287
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Post by Darlene on Aug 16, 2010 4:02:31 GMT -5
That's very interesting Kevin,my ferret koby has a very distinctive hacking cough,he has episodes about every three months. It makes me think of honking geese,I've never heard any animal sound the way he does.. He's had it since he was a kit(he;ll be 4 soon).I've been wanting to video tape him during a fit,but I never know when it'll happen. I always feel so bad for him when he's having a hacking spell. Thankfully he recovers pretty quick.
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ferretfreke
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder[/b]
Posts: 235
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Post by ferretfreke on Aug 19, 2010 21:46:42 GMT -5
So since I got concerned about this, the ferrets coughs were worse for 2 days then they all miraculously stopped and I haven't heard anything for a few days. So I'm not gonna stress about it.
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