[Sukie note: This is a reply to a long post quoting a pathology report.
Those who want to see the complete thing can access it by going to the
messages at the Ferret Health List
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list.  It seemed that the
test result comments could be useful for a number of folks; for example,
knowing that some liver values other than the bilirubin numbers can mean
very little at times has helped us in the past.]
 
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Well, to start - it's not liver failure - not even close.  The mild
elevation in hepatic enzymes (SGPT and alk phos) are more indicative of
dietary irregularity and mobilization of fat to the liver - nothing more.
Note the normal bilirubin -
 
The leukopenia is mild at best, and does not indicate inflammatory disease
here.  If there was a marked chronic inflammatory response, such as would
be seen with cholangiohepatitis (which needs a biopsy for diagnosis) there
should also be a concomitant elevation in globulins, which is not seen here.
 
Ferrets do not have an intestinal parvovirus like dogs, so that
interpretation is not valid.
 
The hemoconcentration is only mild at best, and I think that on retest,
it could just as easily be normal.  CPK is not specific in ferrets, and I
usually don't pay a lot of attention to it, unless it is extremely high
(which it is not here.)
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3559]