Having heard this week of two people whose vets are advising the use of
fish oil (not cod liver oil) for kidney disease in ferrets I am curious
to learn more.
Most of the sites i located were those of places which were busy selling
fish oil so right now I am avoiding them though later I may snarf
bibliographies to find the articles mentioned. Experience has shown me
that aside from bibliographies the write-ups in such sites all too often
misrepresent articles or pick and choose in ways which are not optimal
for understanding the health issues.
I did find this, though:
http://www.vin.com/proceedings/Proceedings.plx?
CID=WSAVA2003&PID=6682&O=Generic
[Didn't work for me, but perhaps just temporarily down. BIG]
>Diet and Renal Disease: Myths and Realities
>Scott A. Brown, VMD, PhD, DACVIM (Internal Medicine) 2003
Especially:
>However, on the basis of studies in induced renal insufficiency,
>glomerular hypertension caused by omega-6 PUFA is detrimental in the
>long run.
>
>In contrast, dietary supplementation with 15% menhaden oil (providing
>approximately 4% omega-3 PUFA on a dry matter basis) lowered glomerular
>pressure, decreased renal eicosanoid series-2 excretion, and provided
>renoprotection. Dietary >supplementation with lesser amounts of
>menhaden fish oil (providing approximately 0.6% omega-3 PUFA on a dry
>weight basis) reduced the dietary omega-6:omega-3 PUFA ratio from 50:1
>to 5:1 and lowered glomerular pressure and altered urinary excretion of
>eicosanoids. This latter dietary maneuver is likely to be of long-term
>benefit to delay progression of renal injury, though it remains to be
>established in dogs with spontaneous renal insufficiency.
and in relation to human health (but I will need veterinary input to
know if this sort of renal disease is encountered in ferrets.)
http://www.kidney.org/atoz/atozItem.cfm?id=76
> IgA Nephropathy
>In many parts of the world, IgA nephropathy is the most common form of
>glomerulonephritis--a disease that damages the tiny filtering units of
>the kidney, called glomeruli. The damage caused by IgA nephropathy
>results from abnormal deposits of a protein called "IgA" in the
>glomeruli...
>
> ...Cooperative treatment trials on the effectiveness of the drug
>prednisone are continuing in the United States . Researchers recently
>completed a study of the effectiveness of fish oil supplements in
>slowing of the disease. They reported that fish oil supplements
>significantly slowed loss of kidney function in patients with IgA
>nephropathy.
http://www.igan.ca/id67.htm
but not of use in transplants:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?
cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15958723&dopt=Citation
I am curious to learn more about the possible approach of increasing
Omega 3 fatty acid intake, reducing protein intake, reducing phosphorus
intake, and increasing potassium (if I recall the combo right) intake
for kidney disease in ferrets.
Also, might it be that there may be a protective effect for the kidneys
if the ferrets regularly have some fish (not going overboard, of course,
since a person doesn't want to cause Nutritional Steatis) or fish oil in
the diet on a very regular basis?
We actually have encountered very few kidney problems in 24 years but
we usually do have some fish or some fish oil in their diets. We've had
one with kidney disease due to dehydration from a severe bout of ECE and
one with bilateral hydronephrosis secondary to a combination of having a
bladder diverticulum and blocking completely due to struvite stones.
http://veterinarypetcare.com/catkidneyfailure.html
has two recipes, one for cats and one for dogs about halfway down the
page. I do not personally know enough to be able to assess if either,
or some variation, may be useful for ferrets with kidney disease, but I
suspect that vets or a veterinary nutritionist like Dr. Tom Willard
could..
-- Sukie (not a vet)
Ferret Health List
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
International Ferret Congress
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 4953]
|
