Do not forget that ferrets with large tumors on the right side adrenal
disease (as with some other problems close to the liver) can have liver
inflammation just from mechanical causes due to crowding even when the
tumor does not invade the liver. SUPRELORIN (deslorlin implants) often
are a better approach for these ferrets than Lupron Depot. Your vet
can get it from Virbac USA if you are here and other Virbac branches
in many of their other locations.

Do NOT use short acting deslorelin or short acting Lupron variants
since they have the potential to worsen the disease. See:

http://www.miamiferret.org/24hr_lupron.htm

ALT levels are not as important as others. They are often naturally
high in ferrets, so what is the bilirubin like? Also, Doctor Sue has
written in the FHL, the Ferret Health List, about gallbladder disease
in ferrets so check at that website using the search box in about the
middle of the page as well as the separate archives. Also in the FML
Archives, I think, and certainly in the separate FHL Archives is info
I carried w permission of author from ferret veterinary pathology
expert Dr. Bruce Williams on ALT levls in ferrets and I know that info
is also in the materials of the Ferret Health Advancement Group of the
Veterinary School of Michigan State.

Use these for a start but you can probably find even better fits with a
little searching at those locations and maybe at PubMed, though not all
studies appear there:

http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL3606
includes this expert info that the author who is a ferret veterinary
pathology expert permitted me to carry over from a now defunct site
since the AFIP went away:

QUOTE

From Dr. Bruce Williams, who is one of the world's top ferret
veterinary pathologists:

http://www.afip.org/ferrets/Clin_Path/ClinPath.html

Liver from an anorexic ferret. Note that this is a physiologic change
rather than a pathologic one. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Richard Montali,
National Zoological Park). Probably the most common misinterpretation
that I see on a routine basis is in the area of hepatic enzymes.
Remember, that the ferret, being by nature an obligate carnivore, has
an extremely short digestive tract, and requires meals as often as
every four to six hours. Should food not be available, it possesses
the ability to quickly mobilize peripheral fat stores in order to meet
energy requirements. When this physiologic mechanism is activated, the
liver is literally flooded with fat, which results in hepatocellular
swelling which may be marked. The result of this swelling is the
leakage of membrane enzymes such as alanine aminotransferase, and as
the hepatocellular swelling increases, occlusion of bile canaliculi
occurs, resulting, over time, in elevation of alkaline phosphatase.

In conjunction with this physiologic change, elevations of ALT up to
800 mg/dl can be seen, and alkaline phosphatase up to approximately
100 mg/dl. This often causes confusion to practitioners, who render an
erroneous diagnosis of unspecified hepatic disease. However, hepatic
disease is quite uncommon in this species; the most common cause of
true hepatic disease in the ferret is neoplasia, with lymphosarcoma
causing 95% of cases. Rarely bacterial infections of the liver or
biliary tree may be seen.

The diagnosis of hepatic disease in the ferret must be based not only
on ALT and alkaline phosphatase, but other clinical indicators in the
CBC and chem panel. Clinical elevation of icterus or an elevated
bilirubin is an excellent indicatior of primary hepatic disease, or
concomitant leukocytosis or pyrexia may lend additional credence to a
diagnosis of primary hepatic disease.

Decreased total protein and mild hypoalbuminemia is a common finding in
both ill and older ferrets. Most commonly, hypoalbuminemia indicates
prolonged anorexia in the ferret, but it is also a common feature in
long-standing inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. In
older animals, gastroduodenal infection by Helicobacter mustelae is
a common cause of mild hypoalbuminemia, and in young animals, any
inflammatory bowel disease may cause this sign.

END QUOTE

The common high but normal for ferrets ALT readings are touched upon in
this ferret introduction presentation:

<http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/Diseases/Introduction_And_Neuropathology.pdf>

http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL12244

http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL11775

http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL9359

Sukie (not a vet) Ferrets make the world a game.

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
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)
A nation is as free as the least within it.

[Posted in FML 7833]