From:
mjanke@miamiferret.org
Date: 2005-03-12 21:36:07 UTC
Subject: RE: Anaemic ferret and (blood transfusion) q''s- sorry long
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <1237469.1110663367484.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Author wrote:
> How badly anaemic is Reno?
Very! His hematocrit is extremely low. Norms are more like 45%. I believe a normal range is like 38%-50+%. This is not unusual with renal failure because the kidneys aren't producing a hormone called erythropoietin that triggers the production of red blood cells. This can be overcome with a drug called Procrit (Epoetin alfa). When Spaz was in renal failure and his hematocrit was way down, Procrit worked wonders and brought it up to normal levels.
I've had several of my ferrets donate blood. My vet never gave the donor fluids afterwards. We just gave them pet tinic, which is high in iron, for a while.
I don't remember exact donor amounts, but 2 ml doesn't seem like much. Been a while but it seems to me my vet took/used like 10 ml of blood.
mike