From:
dr_bruce_williams
Date: 2001-12-07 22:37:00 UTC
Subject: Re: blood values for my sick ferret
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., alicia <critters@o...> wrote:
> my vet and I thought it would be a good idea to post here and see
what everyone else thinks might be the problem. She isn't completely
sure what is wrong with him. First of all a little about how he is
feeling and all that. I took my 6 year old male albino, Diro, to the
vet today cause he is too thin. some things the vet and I
noticed:his coat is looking dull and coarse he weighs 2.2lbs right
now were as he normally weighs 3 to 3+ lbs., no enlarged spleen,
abdomen feels normal, no lumps anywhere, lymph nodes are not
enlarged, he is dehydrated and appears to not be eating. I started
feeding him myself an hour ago with a mix of pedialyte, chicken baby
food, and A/D. He got a big syringe of sub q fluids at the vets
too. He isn't playing any less really but he does seem to be
sleeping a little more then usual. Thank you for any help you can
all give me. Alicia and Diro
>
> Blood values
> Here are the ones my vet said to include if you need more let me
know and I'll post them too.
It would appear that you have chemistry values as well , but they are
not posted here. It always helps to have all of the values - sort of
liek putting together a puzzle with half of the pieces missing!
I have a copy of the values to go off of. This was done under
the "other" category. My Vet would like to know what the normal range
of Mon. is for ferrets also. His was 15% last March(he was a little
thin and not eating then too for some reason) and 14.3% this time,
which seems high to her but she isn't sure what normal is. His
liver values last March were ALT: 42U/L and this time they are
141U/L.
A significant increase, but still not liely to represent primary
liver disease - ALT often increases when animals are on a poor plane
of nutrition.
His WBC last March was 7.38m.mm3 this time his WBC is 3.80m.mm3.
> the rest of the values:
> Lym 36.9%
> Mon 14.3
> Gra 48.8%
> RBC 10.20M/mm3
> MCV 54.0fl
> Hct 55.0%
> MCH 16.1pg
> MCHC 30.0g/dl
> RDW 9.5
> Hb 16.5g/dl
> PLT 469m/mm3
> MPV 9.8fl
> PDW 8.2
Always some new abbreviations - am assuming that MPV is mean platelet
volume. The monocytes are a little high - I usually like to see them
less than 10%, but I am not aware of any diseases which result in a
selective and mild increase in monocytes. It is often not a very
reliable value, and because many of the newer machines do
differential counts based on cell size, it may not be a valid
reading - especially if this machine is not calibrate for ferret
WBCs. (I surmise it may not be, as the profile is marked "other".
Everything else looks pretty good on the CBC.
With kindest regards,
bruce Williams, DVM