From:
Outlaw50@aol.com
Date: 2002-04-13 11:06:00 UTC
Subject: Questions for vets re: Aleutian disease - I am totally
mystified, please HELP
PI feel is a very strange situation here. As some of you know, I
have 8 ADV positive ferrets. One, Teddy, has Aleutian disease which has been
verified by biopsy results. 5 of the others have "supposedly" verified
Aleutian disease via protein electrophoresis.
One of my ADV negative girls, Brenna, has recently shown symptoms of
insulinoma. She has had staring episodes, tremors and hind leg weakness to
the point of falling over. I scheduled surgery and took her in for blood
work beforehand. At that time, we also sent blood to United to again test
for ADV. The test from United came back negative. Her blood chemistry panel
showed total protein of 7.4, globulin of 4.0, albumin of 2.6, glucose of 27,
slightly low calcium, slightly high sodium, slightly high HGB, and high
lymphocytes. Brenna's appetite has been good and she has not lost any
weight. She has suffered on and off with seedy looking stools for some time,
but that cleared up almost completely when I moved her cage to where my
aggressive ferrets could not "annoy" her.
Brenna had surgery this past Wednesday. Dr. E saw no nodules on her pancreas
but took 2 pieces of the pancreas from different areas to send to the lab.
She also biopsied the liver. The report came back that there are no tumors
at all on Brenna's pancreas (results were completely normal), but the liver
showed damage (I don't have copies of report yet, but will early next week).
She also had enlarged lymph glands in the stomach area. This makes me think
possible IBD per what Dr. X told me when he looked over Charmin
Charlie's necropsy photo.
The strange thing is the result of the protein electrophoresis that we drew
blood for the day of surgery. The results came back at over 40% ratio of
gamma globulins to total protein. Brenna's other globulins were not
elevated. I have been told, and have been telling people, that the
electrophoresis is a definitive test for Aleutian disease. I did the home
saliva test on Brenna today and it was also negative. Has anyone heard of
IBD causing hypergammaglobulinemia?
Does anyone know what's going on? Are the few things that I *thought* I've
known for sure about Aleutian disease wrong? To be honest, this is pretty
scary to me.
Thank you in advance.
Judy
Please give to Aleutian Disease research - the ferret you save may be your
own.
http://www.geocities.com/russiansmom/