From:
Bruce Williams, DVM
Date: 2001-10-25 12:43:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Need vet advice: re: elevated red blood cell count
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., Melissa Litwicki <squirty@m...> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I sent mail a few days ago but am still looking for answers. I
just took
> my spayed 5 yr old female ferret to the vet for her annual
checkup. The
> physical exam showed her to be in excellent health; no problems
except for
> a very slightly enlarged spleen. However, the results of the lab
bloodwork
> came back as follows:
>
> - excessively high red blood cell count
> - 72% of red blood cells vs serum (normal values in the 50% range?)
> in a centrifuge test to separate sells from serum
> - 15,000 cells per microliter in the count of number of red blood
> cells per field on the slide (normal 6k-11k/microliter?)
>
> My vet has never seen this in ferrets before and speculated that it
could
> be caused by cancer; she didn't think her spleen was enlarged
enough to
> account for the test results. >
> What could account for the blood test results above? My vet is
> investigating treatment options but I'd like to give her some other
> opinions in case she comes up empty-handed.
Dear Melissa:
Mike's theory of dehydration has merit, and is always the first thing
to rule out. In such a case, I would repeat in 10-14 days, as long
as this ferret does not show any signs of distress, continues to be
active, eat, drink etc. Before jumping to any conclusions, let's
make sure this is not a spurious finding.
There are very few diseases that cause an elevated PCV. Polycythemia
vera is a very rare neoplasm of the red blood cells; I am currently
corresponding with the owner of one case, in which the PCV exceeded
80. The treatment for this disease is simple removal of blood -
which is titrated to a level which keeps the PCV at a normal or near
normal level. Sounds a bit barbaric, but it is univesally done in
all species and works well. In this ferret, only one or two
bleedings had worked very well.
But let's rule out dehydration first.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM