From:
steve austin
Date: 2001-03-04 10:09:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Please Look At Lab Work
The receipt says they did a Total Protein, PCV1, Creatinine, BUN, ALT,
and a Complete Blood Count. Do the results above include all those
tests???
Jaclyn"
Not a vet, but can give you some basic answers until someone else has a
chance to respond., my answers are more what the tests mean, I can't
interpret them that well. Your vet can do that.
The first set of numbers are the differential from the CBC- that means
that the WBC or white blood cell count was the total, then the types of
cells in that total were looked at and "differentiated" into groups. The
lymphocytes (LY) are the ones we mostly have around in our blood, and the
polymononucleocytes (?sp) or NE are also known as PMN's or neutrophils
are more immature, meaning that they were made more recently. Why would
you have a lot of polys rather than lymphs- well usually means they the
production of the WBC is turned on and they are being sent out to fight
an infection. The PMN's seem to be able to fight better- the WBC job is
to engulf the bacteria or infecting organism and keep it from invading
the body, while other parts of the immune system are preparing for
battle- In infants that are suspected of having whooping cough, the
high white count is as expected, but it is almost all lymphs, the
opposite of what you would expect, and this is one way that you would
look for whooping cough- if other signs were there.
There are other types of WBC's- basophils (BA), eosinophils(EO) -seen
more in parasitic infection, or allergic reactions), monocytes (MO)- they
all have a different shape and sometimes color then the lymphocytes, so
that is how one can look at a slide and tell how many of the cells are
from each group- well, now a computer does most of the work, The % of
these cells are usually small, if they are increased it may mean
something. Increased Monocytes could just be normal, viral
infection,etc. Just guess work. In your case it says HIGH, but when you
add up the LY,NE,EO and get 100%, there are no monos- so something is
wrong with the numbers, all of the % should equal 100- can't have more
than that.
There are also worrisome cells -like blasts that are too immature to find
circulating yet, and are more likely to be found, for example, in humans
with certain type of leukemia.
The rest of the CBC_ the RBC- is the number of circulating red blood
cells or erythrocytes (the numbers writen are X 1 million), the hgb and
hct tell you how much blood is around, I think in ferrets the amount is a
little higher then us humans. The hct is the % hgb concentration and is
usually 3X the hgb- in your case it isn't , but again not sure the
significance. In humans it could mean circulating cold agglutinins-
non-specific, but also seen in Mycoplasma infections- ferrets don't get
this.
The MCV,and other values tell you about the RBC- the shape and size. In
humans the Mean corposcular volume- or MCV, is a lot higher then ferrets,
and we would be iron defecient or with thalassemia with those ferret
numbers, but don't worry ferrets like it that way.
The platelet count is good on Tif, just the number of platelets - the
number you wrote is X 1000.
The BUN is Blood Urea Nitrogen and is a little on the low side, in humans
this means either well hydrated,or lack of protein in diet. A high
number means dehydration (depending on the relationship to the creatine
(Cr)-or renal failure, or some other causes. In Tif's case I am sure
this is the CRSC value, it also seems normal
TP- total protein was 8, again not sure about ferret normals.
ALT- is a liver enzyme, usually done with AST ( other names for them are
SGOT, and SGPT). It was low, but not sure this is significant. If very
high would mean the cells in the liver that produce it are damaged- in
humans from any toxin, infection, and a number other causes.
So, to answer your question the results you posted match the receipt.
Oh, I don't know what spn PCV is.
Patty
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