From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2012-02-14 20:15:16 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] kidneys: notes on raisins, grapes, and currants and acute kidney failure
To: fhl <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
There are articles on this problem in dogs and cats the abstracts of which can be found at PubMed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez
The article on acute kidney failure in ferrets from raisins was "A Killer in the Cupboard? Ferrets Magazine, Novemeber-December 2006, pages 54-56 by Thomas Kawasaki, DVM, Jamie Putt, DVM, and Athena Golden who was studying to be a vet tech.
Notice that in Carnivora this vulnerability appears to vary among individuals in the same type of animals.
The sentence that will probably most perk up ears here is in the final paragraph where they note: "Feeding as few as three to six raisins to a 2-pound ferret might be enough to cause the described type of kidney failure, which could cause either death or debilitation depending on the extent of failure." ( Early in the piece they note that 10 pound dogs have died with as few as 10 grapes or raisins which is why it is thought that even as few as 3 raisins may be too many for some ferrets, and we all know that ferrets sometimes stash more than that number.)
A few other notes from the article: All the animas who got this type of kidney failure had azotemia ("elevated blood urea nitrogen"). 90% to 95% of the cases get an elevated ratio of calcium to phosphorous. 60% have hypercalcemia (which is something that also occurs in Vitamin D3 poisoning in ferrets and dogs). They note that hypercalcemia is uncommon with most causes of kidney failure and tends to be connected to a worse prognosis (though I have read of dogs with D3 poisoning who had kidney calcium deposits but were able to be saved and eventually recovered when the excessive D3 source was removed).
Symptoms usually begin within 24 hours and can include: vomiting, lethargy, refusal to eat, diarrhea and abdominal pain. The ones with the worst prognoses also has additional symptoms such as decreased urine production, no urine production, wobbly legs, weakness, and even the following may be seen:
seizures, hypothermia, dehydration, trmors, excessive drinking, and hypersalivation (drooling).
Recommended to do or look for for this or causes with similar symptoms, or with hypercalcemia:
check urine specific gravity
tubular casts (later in article it mentions that most cases have mild renal tubular damage which heals over time for about half of the individuals, and there is mineralization of many tissues but that can not be reversed and will be fatal if more than 85% of the kidney is involved)
urine glucose levels
check for poisoning by grapes, raisins or currants (Currants were noted in dog cases.)
check for antifreeze poisoning
check for lily poisoning
check for rodenticide poisoning
look for possible multiple myeloma, lymphoma, and mammary gland adencarcinoma
look also at levels of ALT, amylase, potassium, calcium, and phosphrous
It does not mention Vitamin D3 poisoning but since 2006 a lot has appeared in reputable journals on that.
They describe two case studies in ferrets with this sort of poisoning in some detail, and they remind people that vets need to know that unlike in other species the BUN and phosphorus levels might increase without the creatine doing so.
Treatment: fluids (0.9% sodium chloride), charcoal if still need to bind toxins, if needed for vomiting then metoclopramide, if hyperphosphatemia then aluminum hydroxide, and if needed use a diuretic.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)
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