From:
Pam Sessoms
Date: 2001-11-17 23:02:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Re: Bloodwork
On Sun, 18 Nov 2001, Mike Janke wrote:
> I agree! I have looked around for this information all in one place
> and I haven't found it either. I'd love to have a table on my ferret
> health care website with this info. The "pink book" has a lot of the
> info, but it's scattered about the book and I've never found the time
> to compile it into a neat listing.
*nodding vigorously* And then there's the problem I have, which is that
because I do not have any kind of scientific background, even when I find
the values in a book written for ferret vets, I often don't understand
what the test is generally for or what high/low generally means in mammals
for that test. Then there's Dr. Williams' warning about being careful
about charts of normal values. sigh. I usually have to check a whole
handful of places before I can get an idea of what I'm reading... And of
course I mostly rely on what my vet tells me, but it's nice to be able to
go back over stuff on my own time to try to get more up to speed. Wish I
could download my vet's brain from some website. LOL.
> Then again, I don't know what help this info would be to the general
> public. Many of the values can't be taken on their own and readings
> that are off can mean different things based on other values,
> conditions.
Yup! More nodding. :-) For pretty much anything, there are
considerations for other values in the panel or even other tests. Like
with chronic renal failure and needing the values from a urinalysis plus
the bloodwork. A reference chart linking all this stuff together on a web
page would be pretty much impossible to put together, I think. It's just
probably too complex, there are too many dependencies.
Vets amaze me, with their ability to look at these charts of numbers and
put together a picture for what's going on with a sick ferret...
-Pam S.