From:
iceddragon@pandora.be
Date: 2004-07-17 14:35:47 UTC
Subject: insulinoma? Or me being to worried?
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <6597453.1090080689580.JavaMail.nobody@magnesium.smartgroups.com>
Hi,Let me start by saying that I'm from Belgium, Europe and my regular vet =
is a good vet, but not a ferret-specialist.Wednesday she drew blood from my=
two oldest ferrets and I received the results today. These are the result=
s from the oldest, female, neutered, 6 years old:glucose (sober) 45 mg/dlTo=
tal Protein 7,9 g/dlUreum 54,6 mg/dlCreatinin 34,47 micro=
mol/lGOT (AST) 143 U/lGPT (ALT) 116 U/lALK. PHOS. 20 U/lBI=
LE ACIDS 7 micromol/l (sorry, I don't know if I translate this right)L=
IPASE 51 U/lCORTISOL 117 nmol/lMy vet said most of things w=
ere fine, some things were a bit on the high side (like the liver-enzymes) =
but nothing alarming.I have a medical training myself though and I try to k=
eep up with the ferret stuff so an alarm bell went ringing in my head when =
I saw that her glucose was this low... I asked about it and she said that i=
t was indeed a bit low, but again, not alarming... She blamed it on the fac=
t that she had been sober for more than 4 hours. (I took away their food a=
t about 7am, the blood was drawn almost 5 hours later, but since they were =
asleep when I took their food, I don't know exactly how long they were sobe=
r). Could this really be the explanation for her glucose being th=EDs low?=
I also searched for it in the 2nd edition of Ferrets, Rabbits and Rodents b=
y Quesenberry et al. and they also suggest a normal blood glcuose level of=
62,5-134 mg/dl (in fitch ferrets, which she is). What do you think of her=
blood analysis? What do the vets think?I get the feeling that my vet is co=
mparing to much with dogs... Thanks in advance! TinePS: sorry if I make mis=
takes, english is not my mother tongue[Moderator's Note: in this use the wo=
rd "sober" appears to refer to not having partaken of food or fluids, rathe=
r than the more common U.S. everyday useage for not having partaken in alc=
oholic beverages. Your English is marvelous, by the way.]