From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2007-12-17 22:11:56 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] A and D (Changing from the darkness discussion to nutrition studies)
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Looking a bit further, here is a study from 2002
on Vitamin A and ferrets:
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/132/6/1787S
which concludes:
BEGIN QUOTE
In conclusion, feeding experiments performed in this study
show that ferrets and dogs behave in a similar manner with
regard to vitamin A metabolism. Therefore the ferret can be
used as a model to investigate aspects of [beta]-carotene metabo-
lism as well as aspects of the metabolism of vitamin A such as
absorption in the gut, regulation of incorporation of retinyl
esters into lipoproteins in the liver as well as the renal uptake
and regulated excretion of vitamin A in the urine. However,
the substantial differences in vitamin A metabolism of ferrets
compared to that of most other mammals and humans have to
be considered, if the ferret is used as a model for [beta]-carotene
metabolism in humans.
END QUOTE
Let's see, in relation to Vitamin D I am having trouble searching so
will use the name of the most active form of D for the search:
Calciferol ferret
in PubMed
and this one highly unusual thing comes up:
BEGIN QUOTE
J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2003 Apr 15;222(8):1093-6, 1077.Links
Suspected pseudohypoparathyroidism in a domestic ferret.
Wilson GH, Greene CE, Greenacre CB.
Department of Small Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine,
University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
A 1.5-year-old ferret examined because of seizures was found to have
low serum calcium, high serum phosphorus, and extremely high serum
parathyroid hormone concentrations. Common causes of these
abnormalities, including nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism,
chronic renal secondary hyperparathyroidism, tumor lysis syndrome, and
hypomagnesemia, were ruled out, and a tentative diagnosis of
pseudohypoparathyroidism was made. Pseudohypoparathyroidism is a
hereditary condition in people that, to our knowledge, has not been
identified in ferrets previously and is caused by a lack of response
to high serum parathyroid hormone concentrations, rather than a
deficiency of this hormone. The ferret improved after treatment with
dihydrotachysterol (a vitamin D analog) and calcium carbonate. It was
still doing well after 3.5 years of continued treatment.
PMID: 12710772 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
END QUOTE
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
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