Hello,
 
I have a question for any vets or ferret owners who may have had similar
experiences.  One of my ferrets, Seera, who is a 7 yr old female that I
have had since she was a baby, has been acting abnormally.  She waddles
rather than walks, and sometimes has a "drunken" walk to the point where
she has trouble walking, she acts like she is chewing gum (I know this can
be a sign of mini seizures in dogs), and lately, she has stopped drinking
out of the water bottle, although she will drink out of a water bowl.  She
has also lost some weight, although she is not in the danger zone of skinny
yet.  I took her in for a blood test today, and these were the results:
 
ALB:      2.91 g/dl
ALKP:   244 U/L          High
ALT:    951 U/L          Extremely high
BUN:     22.8  mg/dl
CREA:     0.39 mg/dl
GLU:    101.7  mg/dl
PHOS:     5.25 mg/dl
TP:       8.53 g/dl      High
GLOB:     5.62 g/dl      High
 
My first thought was insulinoma, but her glucose is fine.  The blood test
was done after a 4 hr fast, although she was given linatone while the vet
was trying to get the blood sample.  Considering the normal high end of the
ALT is listed at around 250 U/L, hers is extremely high.  Her stools look
okay, I have not been able to catch a glimpse of what her urine looks like,
although when I looked at her today, her anus was slightly protruding, with
a little bit of stool matted in her hair.  Rabbits, Rodents and Ferrets has
only a brief column about liver disease, listing tumors as the most likely
cause, and Biology and Diseases of the Ferret has pretty much nothing that
I could find on liver disease in ferrets.  Given her age, I am loath to put
her under the stress of an exploratory surgery, unless I knew for sure
there was something to remove, and that it would do any good.
 
Does anyone have any experience with this?  I really don't want to lose
this little girl, as she was my second ferret, and she has a sister the
same age as her, who other than a cataract, is doing fine.  Neither one of
these girls has ever been sick before, other than a skin tumor.  As of
today I am starting her on .5cc of pediapred, and amoxicillin.  Are there
any tests that would give a more definitive diagnosis?  You can e-mail me
at [log in to unmask]  Thank you.
 
Dooks and kisses to your fuzzies,
Shelley Knudsen
Pre-Veterinary Student   UNK
[log in to unmask]    http://www.tcgcs.com/~ferrets
402-463-0190   402-461-6541
fax: 253-981-1054
 
"It is not what life throws at us, but what we do with it,
that defines who we are." - Author unknown
[Posted in FML issue 2991]