Dear Amy:
 
>His B.U.N level (blood urinia nitrogen(sp?) came back at 116!!  If I
>understood correctly a "high normal" level would be 45.  We are thinking
>that since his prostate never fully went down between the left adrenal
>surgery in August, and the right adrenal on Dec.  21st, that there
>is possible kidney damage.  I was told to add a bit of salt to his
>ducksoup/babyfood to encourage him to drink more to try and flush his
>system.  I did get him to drink more but decided since he hadn't really
>improved to take him in and have subq fluids administered.  (I also came
>down with that flu like bug and didn't want him to catch it)  They are
>cautiously optomistic that we can get his level down.  I was wondering
>how common this is, and if he might stand a good chance of getting through
>this.  Can you do dialysis on a ferret?  He said if we could get it down
>to the 50's he should be okay.
 
There are a number of considerations to be made before we jump to a
conclusion of kidney damage.  Evaluation of renal function incorporates a
number of tests both on the urine and elsewhere in the chemistry profiles.
Other tests that shed light on the kiney function are the creatinine level
and the phosphorus, and no assessment of renal function should be made
without a concurrent urinalysis and specific gravity reading on the urine.
 
Plus, occasionally, you can get spurious values on lab tests.  I see them
more and more commonly, when one test is out of whack, but everything else
is in the normal range.  This is why we always retest these values several
days down the road before we start therapy - just to make sure that there
wasn't a problem on that day.
 
While subcutaneous fluids will help in the short run to get Jasper up and
running around a bit (they tend to make the ferrets feel better), they
really only provide short term respite in lowering BUN levels IF there is
organic damage to the kidneys.  So don't expect BUN levels to return to
normal and stay there.
 
No, currently dialysis is not provided for ferrets.
 
My suggeston - run another blood test a week after the first one, and ask
for a urinalysis with specific gravity.  Then we can see the whole picture,
and not just focus on one single parameter.  Then we'll have a much better
picture of what is going on and can talk about things that we can do
(dietary protein restrictions, etc.)
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM
[Posted in FML issue 3309]