From:
Celia Clinkinbeard
Date: 2002-01-30 22:21:00 UTC
Subject: Epogen questions
I've given up on being brief, but I tried...
Questions:
Assuming a diagnosis of non-regenerative anemia due to chronic
renal failure, is there a certain low value of PCV that would
shout "epogen"??
What is a typical ferret dose of epogen, and how often is it
given?
How soon would you see improvement? Hours? Weeks?
Has anyone seen any "antibody" reactions in ferrets?
How safe is it to use with cardiomyopathy?
I posted about Cokie before (8 yo, extremely weak for over a
month). She has heart and kidney disease and insulinoma and
bilat adrenal. She's had chronic kidney failure for a little
over 2 years. Her recent weakness has improved slightly.
Most of her bloodwork is close to normal now, with the
exception of Hematocrit, RBC, hemoglobin. I'm hoping this is
anemia that can be treated and not her heart!! I'd love to
hear others' experiences with epogen, too.
Here are some bloodwork results (I've left out some that were
normal.) (We are still increasing her florinef a bit.)
I am hoping someone will say: "Yes!! Epogen is the
answer!!!"
Thank you to everyone!!
Celia
Hemoglobin: 8.2 G/DL
Hematocrit: 24.3 %
WBC: 3.2 THDS/cmm
RBC: 4.83 Mill/cmm
MCV: 50
MCH: 17.8
MCHC: 33.7
Glucose: 82 mg/DL
BUN: 43 mg/DL
Creatinine: 1.0 mg/DL
Alk Phos: 126 U/L
ALT (SGPT): 907 U/L (Dr. says this is mainly due to meds)
Na: 141
K: 5.6