Message Number: SG12155 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Pam Sessoms
Date: 2005-01-05 01:35:33 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] RE: 2.7 creatinine level - Help please!
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <5c46b4a4050104173520505867@mail.gmail.com>

Jennifer,

I think her attitude is the most important thing. My vet mentioned
once that while creatinine is considered to be the more sensitive
indicator of kidney failure in ferrets, the BUN could remain pretty
low while the ferret's body is still compensating relatively well.
I've had a few with CRF, but one (Pumpkin) was lost to cardiomyopathy
before his kidneys became unmanageable, and the other two are only
relatively recently diagnosed and are still doing fine (creatinine
around 1.6 and BUN in normal range but urine like water).

One thing we did for Pumpkin was CoQ10 at about 10 mg three times a
day, or 15 mg twice a day. We were doing it for his heart, but over a
year or two of chronic renal failure, his kidneys only became a small
bit worse. He did much better than expected. Anyway, there is at
least one study about the benefits of CoQ10 for human patients in
end-stage renal failure, and maybe we accidentally helped his kidneys
out while trying to help his heart. You might want to run adding this
supplement by your vet. Maybe it'll turn out that CoQ10 is helpful
for CRF. A link to the abstract is here:

http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/link.asp?id=dtql15bk2gukgv6k

Journal of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine
Volume 13, Number 1 / March 2003
Pages: 13 - 22
Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Trial of Coenzyme Q10 in
Patients with End-stage Renal Failure
Authors: Singh, Kumar, et al.

Best wishes, and hang in there,

-Pam S.