From:
"Pam Sessoms"
Date: 2006-04-27 20:13:40 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] ferret diagnosed with kidney failure
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
On 4/27/06, pineyrod@prodigy.net.mx <pineyrod@prodigy.net.mx> wrote:
> I wrote about a week ago, thinking that Micky ,my 4 year old ferret had a=
spinal problem or possibly an injury because his first symptom was that he=
could began to drag his hind limbs. He was put on prednisolone.Then we als=
o realized he had incontinence. After xrays and blood tests and consulting =
at least 4 vets, it turns out he has high creatinine levels at 1.5 and BUN =
at 49.<snip>
I'm sorry to hear about your Micky. I've had a few ferrets with
chronic kidney failure and other problems as well.
I'm not trying to doubt your vets, but I've never had one with kidney
values similar to Micky's have this sort of hind end weakness just
from the kidney problem. His creatinine is above normal, but it's not
horrible, and the BUN isn't all that high either, assuming these
values are in mg/dl. I've had several ferrets with creatinine at
around 1.75 - 2.0 and BUN at 45 that were up and running around
looking quite normal. Check out this list of values on Mike Janke's
site:
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/physiology.htm
His hind end weakness sound more like what is often seen with
insulinoma, or any other really serious ferret sickness. The
incontinence can come with neuroligcal problems, which can be brought
on by having very low blood sugar for a long time, or from injury like
you suspected, or from various cancers. Was a blood glucose level
taken? I'd be interested to know what that was. Were any other
abnormal blood values besides the kidney ones found?
For the kidneys, you can try a couple of supplements besides the extra
fluids you're giving. My ferrets with bad kidneys get CoQ10 at about
10 mg twice a day; this is a supplement you can find at health food
stores and many pharmacies. They also get fish oil, which you can
find at the same places. These can be mixed into a soft food, like
chicken baby food or a duck soup. There is more in the archives about
these supplements:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
Anyway, I am not a vet and do not have any special training other than
taking care of pet ferrets. I don't want to contradict your vets, but
it feels like something else must be going on here besides the kidney
problem...
Best wishes,
-Pam S.
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