From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2008-02-25 22:20:43 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: This food okay for ferret?
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
First steps first:
How was the presence of liver illness determined?
Liver values are the most common source of confusion
among vets who are not used to ferrets.
Liver illness is often diagnosed in ferrets when it does
not exist.
These will help and if your vet is not a ferret vet then
she or he will be grateful to have these pieces of information:
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/Clin_Path/ClinPath.html
quoted with the permission of Dr. Bruce Williams, ferret
veterinary pathology expert:
BEGIN QUOTE
Liver from an anorexic ferret. Note that this is a
physiologic change rather than a pathologic one.
(Photo courtesy of Dr. Richard Montali, National
Zoological Park). Probably the most common
misinterpretation that I see on a routine basis is
in the area of hepatic enzymes. Remember, that
the ferret, being by nature an obligate carnivore,
has an extremely short digestive tract, and requires
meals as often as every four to six hours. Should
food not be available, it possesses the ability to
quickly mobilize peripheral fat stores in order to
meet energy requirements. When this physiologic
mechanism is activated, the liver is literally flooded
with fat, which results in hepatocellular swelling
which may be marked. The result of this swelling
is the leakage of membrane enzymes such as alanine
aminotransferase, and as the hepatocellular swelling
increases, occlusion of bile canaliculi occurs, resulting,
over time, in elevation of alkaline phosphatase.
In conjunction with this physiologic change, elevations
of ALT up to 800 mg/dl can be seen, and alkaline
phosphatase up to approximately 100 mg/dl. This often
causes confusion to practitioners, who render an erroneous
diagnosis of unspecified hepatic disease. However, hepatic
disease is quite uncommon in this species; the most common
cause of true hepatic disease in the ferret is neoplasia, with
lymphosarcoma causing 95% of cases. Rarely bacterial
infections of the liver or biliary tree may be seen.
The diagnosis of hepatic disease in the ferret must be based
not only on ALT and alkaline phosphatase, but other clinical
indicators in the CBC and chem panel. Clinical elevation of
icterus or an elevated bilirubin is an excellent indicatior of
primary hepatic disease, or concomitant leukocytosis or
pyrexia may lend additional credence to a diagnosis of primary
hepatic disease.
Decreased total protein and mild hypoalbuminemia is a common
finding in both ill and older ferrets. Most commonly,
hypoalbuminemia indicates prolonged anorexia in the ferret, but it
is also a common feature in long-standing inflammatory disease
of the gastrointestinal tract. In older animals, gastroduodenal
infection by Helicobacter mustelae is a common cause of mild
hypoalbuminemia, and in young animals, any inflammatory
bowel disease may cause this sign.
END QUOTE
ALSO:
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/PDF/Ferret_GI_path_reports.pdf
Okay the food:
You are SURE to get a bunch of people writing that if
you feed high levels of carbohydrates your ferret will
get insulinoma. That is inaccurate. There is currently
a hypothesis (i.e. a supposition with some evidence but
not proven) that over time a diet high in carbohydrates
might cause a higher number of ferrets to get insulinoma
than otherwise would get it, in other words an increase in
rate may potentially happen over time BUT that does not
mean that all will get it nor than rapid onset should be
expected. Given that the incidence rate per ferret seemed
be much lower back in previous decades but that the foods
were generally worse then it might even be that if the
hypothesis holds that it might apply more to certain genetic
groups. Back then there were very few fancies.
It is important to not put the cart before the horse.
Hypotheses are useful but if a ferret has a known serious
medical problem which requires a dietary change then the
diet must fit the existing serious need rather than being
based around a possibility.
The fear of insulinoma has already killed some ferrets who
were supposed to be on low protein diets because their own
personal problems happened to include forming cystine uroliths.
SUIT THE DIET TO THE EXISTING SPECIAL NEED.
I suspect your vet wants to ease the work the liver is doing
but I am not sure that a harder to digest diet will do that, though
I sure can see why the vet would want to get the fat level down
if there is actual liver disease. There may be better alternatives
such as some of the senior diets designed for ferrets, but I
am not a vet.
WEIGH RISK FACTORS; NOT ALL ARE EQUAL FOR ANY GIVEN FERRET.
SUIT CHOICES TO EXISTING SERIOUS MEDICAL PROBLEMS ONCE IT
IS KNOWN THAT THEY ACTUALLY EXIST.
Sorry about shouting; I have just known some people whose
ferrets died needlessly and would not have been likely to be
lost if those things were done, and that is heartbreaking.
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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