From:
AFERRETVET@cs.com
Date: 2005-10-20 06:07:43 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Melatonin implant 1
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Hi Joanne,
Sorry to hear about your ferret's unexpected death.
The autopsy showed a dilated heart. This is called
dilated cardiomyopathy, and it is very common in older
ferrets. Thus in a ferret that is almost 8 years old, it is
not surprising that she had dilated cardiomyopathy.
Dilated cardiomyopathy leads to congestive heart failure.
Congestive heart failure leads to fluid retention and fluid
and blood in the lungs. The autopsy also showed blood in her
lungs. Therefore the cause of death was congestive heart failure
from the dilated cardiomyopathy. The real question is why
did she go down hill so fast after the implant. Perhaps it was
the stress of going to the vet and receiving the injection that
caused her to decompensate so quickly.
Now to clear up some of the confusion about the implants,
Ferretonin (the ferret implant) contains 5.4 mg of melatonin, which
is the exact same amount as the male mink implant.
When they did toxicity studies for FDA approval, they gave mink kits
78.2 mg, which worked out to be roughly 80 mg/kg for the male
kits and 124 mg/kg for the female kits. They were 8-10 weeks old,
and they received 14.5 times the amonut of melatonin that is
in the ferret melatonin implant.
When they did the adults, they gave them 100 mg of melatonin.
There was no sign of toxicity or adverse reaction in these studies,
except the male kits gained an average of 324 grams more than
the control group. There was also no toxicity on histopath, which
included the heart. In the field studies, more than 31,000 mink were
implanted with no signs of toxicity or adverse reactions.
In a study conducted in New Zealand, ferrets were given 8 mg
melatonin implants, and some received a second implant the
following year. No adverse reactions reactions during this 16 month
long ferret study.
Hope that answers some of your questions,
Jerry Murray, DVM
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