Many, many , many thanks to Pam Sessoms who sent this and a lot more
info, but I have to wait till I get time to go through it, and I am
not sure if that can even be this week.

It's from the latest study. Some types of uroliths share overlaps in
conditions that can lead to formation so sometimes more than one type
will be present. Not having read it yet I suspect the compound ones
will have more than one form in a given urolith, whereas mixed will
have a combo of forms present in the bladder at the same time but not
attached to each other. I also suspect that matrix may mean Urea
uroliths which I have read occurring in ferrets, but that is also
something I'll have to check when I finally get time.

>Ferret uroliths a 3, 4 (n=409)
>
>Struvite 273 (66.8)
>Cystine 61 (14.9)
>Calcium oxalate 43 (10.5)
>Purines 8 (2.0)
>Matrix 6 (1.5)
>Compound 4 (1.0)
>Mixed 4 (1.0)
>Other 4 (1.0)
>Calcium phosphate 3 (0.7)
>Silica 1 (0.2)
>Calcium carbonate 1 (0.2)
>Magnesium hydrogen phosphate 1 (0.2)

The article has detailed information on a number of species, not just
ferrets, and is titled:

>Quantitative Analysis of 4468 Uroliths Retrieved from Farm Animals,
>Exotic Species, and Wildlife Submitted to the Minnesota Urolith
>Center: 1981 to 2007
>Carl A. Osborne, DVM, PhDa, Hasan Albasan, DVM, MS, PhDa, Jody P.
>Lulich, DVM, PhDa, Eugene Nwaokorie, DVMb, Lori A. Koehler, CV Ta,

Dr. Carl Osborne is one of the specialists who was a such a huge help
as a consultant when we first encountered cystine uroliths with
Hilbert. We also used what we learned from him to keep Mornie safe.
BTW, Hilbert is 6 years old now and Mornie will turn 6 years old this
year. Neither has had a recurrence of cystine uroliths (so far) on
their diet which keeps down the COLA Amino Acid Grouping (Cystine,
Ornithine, Lysine, and Arginine, if memory serves) and their urine pH
levels are still acceptable on last check, too. It is not sufficient
to decrease just cystine because having more of any of those amino
acids than the individual's kidneys can tackle will cause cystine to
precipitate out. Not bad for two ferret who would have died as kits
without first having surgery and then having their diet to restrict
protein intake to no higher than 35%. Some ferrets who get cystine
stones still die needlessly as youngsters because people are afraid to
go down to this percentage of protein. Hilbert is under treatment for
some adrenal needs, but otherwise they are completely healthy, happy,
very active, muscular, cuddly, etc. Neither has insulinoma. Both have
neural crest variant markings, so I am afraid we don't expect either to
be among the very long lived ferret family members, but at this point
it looks like they both have a decent chance of reaching pretty typical
ages of around 8 years.

There is another 6 year old ferret in our family, Whizbang, who has
been a little slow recently so she is being monitored to see if that
is actually anything going on but still very early in the problem (too
early to pin down), or is something transient. She's recently fought a
nasty infection successfully so it could be from that, too.

BTW, someone recently asked how long we've had ferrets. Not as long as
some here, but not as short as many here. I guess it is something like
27 years (maybe 28 now or soon?)

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html  (Yes, I have to
update it, but it has to wait for me to have time)

[Posted in FML 6229]