From:
d6n6b6@yahoo.co.uk
Date: 2005-09-03 20:04:14 UTC
Subject: adrenal disease and renal cyst - What to do? (vets? ppl with experience?)
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <7882919.1125777854104.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Yesterday, one of my ferrets has been diagnosed with adrenal disease and a renal cyst. The diagnose has been made through ultrasound and bloodwork:
Ultrasound:
-Left adrenal enlarged + odd shape
-Right adrenal normal shape, just barely within normal size ranges
-Right kidney: cyst
She's 7 years old, and about a month ago she had a routine bloodwork done(while anesthetized for a dental cleaning). This bloodwork showed anemia (PCV of 17%), increased BUN (81,6mg/dl) and increased Total Protein (7,1g/dl). Everything else was normal (except perhaps maybe AST, according to some references also slightly increased: 110U/l)
I was thinking about adrenal disease back then already (I'm a vet student), since her coat wasn't spectacularly good back then, and because of the anemia I was thinking about estrogens being produced by the adrenal(s). Her vulva was not enlarged though, and my vet thought she only needed some extra vitamins and minerals, because she was getting old and maybe not resorbing things as well as she should have. We agreed to try with a multivitamin/mineral complex, and decided to do another bloodwork 2 months later.
But since I didn't see her improve, and maybe even become slightly worse, I took her to the clinic at my own university last week. Blood work was done again, and this were the results:
-Hemoglobin 11,4 g/dl TOO LOW (but not as low as a month ago)
-PCV 39,0% slightly TOO LOW according to some references, normal accoring to others)
-erythrocytes 6,72 10^12/l (slightly?) TOO LOW
MCV 58,1 fl
MCH 16,9pg
MCHC 29,1g/dl
RDW 13,1%
-WBC 3,2 10^9/l normal
-neuthrophils 0,0% (these are the ones with the non-segemented nucleus, I don't know how to translate it)
-neutrophils (segmented) 60,7% TOO HIGH according to some??
-lymphocytes 33,7%
-Monocytes 2,1%
-Basophils 0,2%
-Eosinophils 3,3%
-Morphology RBC/WBC/PLT normal
(the different WBC's are also listed in 10^6/l and /cmm instead of as%, if you need to see those also, please ask)
-Reticulocytes 2,5%
-Sodium 151mEq/l
-Potassium 4,8mEq/l
-Chloride 116mEq/l
-BUN 106mg/dl definitely TOO HIGH
-Tot. Protein 6,0g/dl or 60g/l normal this time, although on the high side
-Albumin 2,64g/dl or 26,4g/l normal or TOO LOW???
-AST/GOT 145U/L TOO HIGH
-ALT/GPT 118U/L
-Gamma-GT 7U/L
-ALK PHOS 29U/L normal but on the high side
-Glucose 68mg/dl normal according to the refs, but maybe TOO LOW according to me... ?? She doesn't have symptoms though, she fasted for 4 hours before the bloodwork was done)
Estradiol 920pmol/l or 250pg/ml DEFINITELY MUCH TOO HIGH
The last one led us back to the adrenals again, and the ultrasound proved they were posing a problem indeed.
MY QUESTIONS:
-What do you think about the above bloodwork?
-What about the neutrophils, the albumin and the fasting glucose?
-Could the BUN be caused by the renal cyst?
-What can we do to treat the renal cyst/support the kidneys? (if treatment is to be done at all).
I have an appointment with my professors to talk about what we're gonna do on Monday, but I'd like to be prepared. We'll probably give her Lupron or a Deslorelin implant for the adrenal disease, since surgery is more or less out of the question because of her age. But they didn't seem to be inclined to do something about the BUN or about the renal cyst. What would vets on this list do, or what are other people's experiences?
And would Essiac and/or Pycnogenol be beneficial to her?
Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post!
Wendy