From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2003-01-05 19:09:44 UTC
Subject: Re: Elevated Bilirubin
To: dmburman@rcn.com, ferrethealth@smartgroups.com, williamsb@comcast.net
Message-id: <a05200f04ba3e2bafad58@[10.0.1.22]>
Were you maybe thinking of liver numbers other than bilirubin?
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html in the document titled
"Confusion and Controversy in Interpreting Ferret Clinical Pathology Data":
>enzymes. Remember, that the ferret, being by nature an obligate
>carnivore, has an extremely short >digestive tract, and requires
>meals as often as every four to six hours. Should food not be
>available, >it possesses the ability to quickly mobilize peripheral
>fat stores in order to meet energy >requirements. When this
>physiologic mechanism is activated, the liver is literally flooded
>with fat, >which results in hepatocellular swelling which may be
>marked. The result of this swelling is the >leakage of membrane
>enzymes such as alanine aminotransferase, and as the hepatocellular
>swelling >increases, occlusion of bile canaliculi occurs, resulting,
>over time, in elevation of alkaline phosphatase.
...
>The diagnosis of hepatic disease in the ferret must be based not
>only on ALT and alkaline >phosphatase, but other clinical indicators
>in the CBC and chem panel. Clinical elevation of icterus or >an
>elevated bilirubin is an excellent indicatior of primary hepatic
>disease, or concomitant leukocytosis >or pyrexia may lend additional
>credence to a diagnosis of primary hepatic disease.
Those are only two small parts of it, of course, but in case they may
help I included them. The second part mentioned that bilirubin is
an excellent indicator and what also can help indicate liver disease.
The first part goes into how other liver values of a ferret who does
not have food every 4 to 6 hours are thrown off.
If you can't use that info maybe someone else can, but I am hoping
that it helps you, Diane.
Jaundice itself, which she had a year ago, is a sign of liver
problems, of course, as you know. (Just from curiosity, when ferrets
jaundice do they also develop a lot of small skin blisters all over
like humans can?)
Livers do regenerate but they are not really the same afterward. I
know from my family that a human who has had a serious liver illness
can have the liver years later act up temporarily during or after a
major illness and then have it simmer down again. I do NOT know if
that can happen in ferrets, but I hope that what you are encountering
is no more than that.
Sukie