From:
Dean and Becky DeGeer
Date: 2001-03-09 23:12:00 UTC
Subject: Ferret not eating; odd blood results
I was hoping someone out there could help with these
test results.
I have a ferret (Coke) who had stopped eating on his
own. I took him to the vet yesterday, and she
couldn't figure out why he wasn't eating, but when she
ran a CBC on him, some of his results came back weird,
and she wasn't sure what to make of them. I was
hoping someone here might have some ideas. Here's
what happened.
Several days ago, I noticed he had mucousy diarhea. He
does that once in a while, so I didn't think much of
it. I also noticed he felt a little lighter, but I
thought it was seasonal weight loss (we're starting to
shed here now). But the weight loss continued, so I
put him in the quarantine cage to monitor poops and
food. I found out he wasn't eating, and still had
diarhea. I started hand-(force)-feeding him, and he
started to put some of the weight back on, but was
still very lethargic. I would let him out with our
other ferrets so he could get some exercise, but he
wasn't interested in anything but sleeping. He even
let Cinnamon give him several baths, and he usually
HATES that.
I thought he might have a bad tooth, because he acted
like he wanted to eat. He would go to the food bowl
and pick up some food, but then just drop it again.
Whenever I would feed him, he would grind his teeth on
one side, and also rub that side of his face against
the floor. There was no vomiting, and his poops (once
I started force-feeding him) were normal in color, if
a little loose. When the vet looked at his teeth,
though, she couldn't see anything. They had to gas
him to draw blood (as soon as I put him on the exam
table, he decided "forget this lethargy crap, I want
to explore!"), so while he was under, she also did a
complete dental exam. Other than a fair amount of
tartar, which she said was normal for his age (he's at
least five), the vet didn't find anything wrong with
his teeth. She did find out, though, that he had a
bad case of ear mites. So now we have a whole
household to treat. (SHEEEESH!!!)
One thing that did concern her, though, were his blood
results, specifically elevated creatinine (sp?) and
low potassium. She mentioned something about it being
a possible sign of renal failure, but that he wasn't
showing the right symptoms. Another that concerns me
(though she didn't mention it), was a borderline low
glucose. He had been fed about 2-3 hours before they
drew the blood. She put him on amoxi drops, and also
gave me tresaderm drops to treat everyone's ears.
He's never had any illnesses in the four years we've
had him.
Since we've been home, he's started to eat on his own
again, small amounts at first, but now he's just about
back to normal. His poops are also fully formed, and
tonight he even played "Chase the Cheweasel".
I was hoping someone on here might know a reason for
these blood results, since she didn't. Here they are:
TEST RESULTS REFERENCE RANGE
ALKP 95 U/L 9 - 84
ALT 201 U/L 82 - 289
BUN 18.8 mg/dl 10.0 - 45.0
CREA 0.99 mg/dl 0.40 - 0.90
GLU 96.9 mg/dl 94.0 - 207.0
TP 6.10 g/dl 5.20 - 7.30
Na 155.5 mmol/l 139.0 - 169.0
K 3.61 mmol/l 4.60 - 7.60
Cl 122.8 mmol/l 106.0 - 125.0
HCT 34.2 %
HGB 12.4 g/dl
MCHC 36.3 g/dl
WBC 4.5 x 10(9)/L
GRANS 3.2 x 10(9)/L
% GRANS 71 %
L/M 1.3 x 10(9)/L
%L/M 29 %
PLT 236 x 10(9)/L
Retics 0.3 %
Thank you in advance for any insights you might have.
(Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to give the whole
history, because otherwise the results are just
numbers.)
Blessings,
Becky (with Cinnamon, Coke, Pixie, Chitterbox, and
Kodi-Bear)
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