Message Number: FHL3087 | New FHL Archives Search
From: "cherylnj81"
Date: 2007-11-20 22:14:11 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Pneumonia on x-ray but no symptoms?
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com

I have a 5.5 year old male ferret, who 6 weeks ago went in for an
adrenal surgery based solely on a Tennessee Panel (no aggression, hair
loss, etc.). When the vet went in he felt both adrenal glands were
affected so he removed one and debulked the other, and he also sent
the glands in for biopsy. As it turns out the gland showed some
necrotic tissue but not malignancy, so we are lucky we took the glands
out when we did. he also had been diagnosed with insulinoma about 1
month prior to getting surgery and started on .1 Prednisolone 2x a
day. The Pred was hard on his stomach so we started giving him a bit
of moistened kibble ("soup") with his medicine.

After surgery Alvin was fine and eating hard food but he stopped
eating hard food and has been on the moistened Hill's ZD ever since
the surgery.

Last week, I brought Alvin in to make sure there was no underlying
reason he was not switching back to kibble, plus he has been acting a
little weird, some hind-end weakness has persisted, even gotten a
little worse, in the last few months, and his breath was a little
stinky. We decided to get his teeth cleaned and do an x-ray while he
was under anesthesia to rule anything else out.

He came through the cleaning just fine but when the vet did the x-ray
it showed he had pneumonia. This was really surprising to both me and
the vet because he has no breathing problems whatsoever, no coughing,
sneezing, etc. He has a chronic slight runny nose but thats about it.

The latest blood panel came back as follows:
Total protein - 8.1 g/dL (4.3-6.0 g/dL)
Globulin 4.2 g/dL (0.2-2.4 g/dL)
Creatinine 0.3 mg/dL (0.4-0.9 mg/dL)
Calcium 9.8 mg/dL (7.6-9.6 mg/dL)
Monocytes 8 (0-1%)
Eosinophil 4 (0-1%)

On a test from before the adrenal surgery his AST (SGOT) was elevated
as well as his Cholesterol but that has come down since 9/28/07

He is doing slightly better on his anti-biotics, he still won't eat
hard food and now he has started having diarrhea (I have a call in to
the vet about this0.

My questions are:
- Is there anything besides pneumonia that can LOOK like pneumonia on
an x-ray?
- Can you have pneumonia and not have any of your WBC, RBC, etc.
levels raised?
- Can cardiomyopathy show up on an x-ray?




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