From:
Bruce Williams, DVM
Date: 2001-10-10 12:28:00 UTC
Subject: Feedback/Renal failure
Dear Phyllis:
I am sorry for your loss. In regards to Scotty's kidneys, the first
question that I ALWAYS have to ask is: were the kidneys removed for
pathologic examination, and if so, what did the report say? Or if they were
not sent off, are they still available?
Looking at kidneys grossly is relatively imprecise - they may be shrunken,
and this is consistent with renal failure as well as the signs and symptoms
that he exhibited, but you can't identify the cause of the problem without
examination under the microscope by a pathologist. (In truth, it can often
be difficult to precisely identify a cause in many cases of renal failure,
as you are generally looking at the end result of a process that may be
years in the making.)
Your theory about genetics is likely correct. Although it has never been
proven, it is likely that there is a genetic basis for ferrets who die early
of kidney damage. However, if it is any comfort at all, influenza likely
had nothing to do with it, other than possibly to further compromise Scotty.
The viral infection of influenza in ferrets is restricted to the respiratory
tract, and does no damage to the kidneys.
As the other animals appear to be fine, monitoring BUN levels is probably
not cost-effective or warranted.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
----- Original Message -----
From: To: <williams@e...>
Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2001 11:14 PM
> Dr. Williams,
> I had a male ferret (Scotty) who had been very healthy, until he
> picked up "flu" symptoms at the end of January, this year. My
> husband and I had a mild form of "flu", and as hard as we tried to
> take precautions, and not pass it along to our ferrets, the entire
> clan got symptoms. All our ferrets got over their symptoms within a
> couple days, except this one male ferret. He didn't recover as fast,
> and lost weight. We hand fed him the 'duck soup' recipe and made
> sure he had plenty of fluids, but he wasn't gaining weight. My vet
> accessed the situation and found his BUN elevated. Scotty rec'd
> fluids and appeared to be getting better, but then became dehydrated
> again. I was giving him IV fluid at home, but no real improvement.
> We could see he was deteriorating quickly, and opted to euthanize.
> On a post mortem exam, my vet found the kidneys shriveled and said
> there was total kidney failure. Do you think this might have been a
> genetic situation, where the "flu" symtpoms were enough to trigger
> Scotty's kidney failure? Scotty had just made his 4th birthday. I
> have his 4 offspring - two males and two females, all are 3 yrs. old
> now. Should we be monitoring their BUN levels or have other tests
> done in case there might be some hereditary kidney problem, or could
> the "flu" simply have led to the kidney failure? I'm just fishing for
> some reasoning on this, and any thoughts/feedback you might have
> would be appreciated.
>
> Phyllis
>