http://www.smartgroups.com/message/readmessage.cfm?gid=1423922&messageid=3368
 
Author wrote:
>My Tika Blu, about 3 years old, a normally very playful ferret bursting
>with energy, started acting "sick" in the past week and a half.  First
>of all, I found her sleeping in bottom level of their three level cage -
>only newspaper down there for bathroom use - they don't go down there
>for anything else(side note - I found a previous ferret down there who
>had apparently went down there to die from insulinomic complications) -
>a few times.  I noticed she was harder to waken than usual.  ...Tika's
>spleen was absolutely huge - seemed to get that way in a matter of days
>(as her symptoms worsened).  An ultrasound didn't show any significant
>findings for the cause of the illness or enlarged spleen.  Bloodwork was
>all pretty much within normal limits except for the liver values which
>led the doctor to believe it may be a liver infection.  Oh, she had a
>fever of 104..
 
Dear Y - Elevated hepatic enzymes (while you don't mention the exact
tests or their levels) are very common in ferrets which are not eating
properly, and should not necessarily be interpreted as the result of
liver disease (this is a common mistake made by vets without a lot of
ferret experience.)
 
Let's look at what we do know - she is acting poorly, and has a huge
spleen.  If you were carrying around a forty pound spleen inside you, I
would surmise you would feel miserable.  Big spleens can dislodge other
organs are really make the bearer feel bad.  This may be why she is not
moving around much.
 
And she does have a fever.  One of the most common causes of fevers in
ferrets is a gastric ulcer - which can also cause anemia, if it is one of
the bleeding kind.  Plus the inflammation associated with gastric ulcers,
and the absorption of substances from the stomach directly across the
devitalized gastric wall can result in local inflammation and
subsequently splenic enlargement.
 
This is not an uncommon chain of events in ferrets, and I belive that I
would be more likely to pursue this line of diagnosis and treatment than
going right to liver disease (which is pretty uncommon overall in
ferrets.)
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 4068]