My beautiful baby Lucky Charm went in for another ultrasound today, her
second in about a month, to look at her kidneys.  She is a very sweet,
beautiful silver mitt with a completely black nose and everyone thinks
she is adorable.
 
One of her kidneys still appears lumpy around the edges but it looks the
same as it did a month ago and the internal structure of both kidneys looks
good.  We were originally going to do a kidney aspirate today but decided
against it when a preliminary blood test on Tuesday showed her creatinine
levels to have spiked up to 3.1, which is very high.  We didn't want to
risk damaging healthy kidney tissue if her kidneys were already seriously
compromised.  A month ago, her creatinine levels were above 1, which was
also higher than normal.
 
I have noticed that for the most part, she seems to have more energy and
feel better after getting sub-Q injections, so she now gets them once a
day.  She doesn't like getting them -- it seems to bother her when the
fluid spreads under her skin -- but overall she seems to tolerate them
quite well.  I called Dr. Weiss and he said that creatinine levels alone
do not indicate kidney disease -- that BUNs are also elevated -- but he
said that if she is feeling better after getting sub-Q injections, then
she probably does some kind of kidney problem.  He agreed that it would
not be a good idea to do an aspirate if her kidneys are damaged.
 
A urine culture came back negative a couple of weeks ago.  Previous
urinalyses did not reveal anything abnormal.
 
Lucky Charm is still on Florinef (about 0.075 mg a day) and has been taking
Florinef ever since her second adrenal was removed last August.  I tried to
wean her off of it a couple of times but she seemed to get a little wobbly,
so by the second day I put her back on it.  Dr. Wimsatt at Colorado State
University warned that taking a ferret off of Florinef who needs the
Florinef can actually lead to kidney failure, so now she gets her Florinef
all the time and I don't even consider trying to reduce or eliminate the
dosage.  Instead of sticking a portion of a tablet at the back of her
throat as I was doing for the first several months, I now grind it up with
a mortar and pestle and mix it with a dollop of Ferretvite or Nutrical on
the palm of my hand.  I didn't want to risk having some of it get into her
lungs, and she likes it mixed with Ferretvite -- she licks up the grains of
Florinef and doesn't even notice them.
 
I am wondering if there is anything else we should be checking.  I don't
have her other blood levels handy, but I think they were all within normal
range or my vet, Shirley Russman, likely would have said something.
 
Today I caught Lucky Charm smacking her chops a bit for no apparent
reason -- I don't know a better way to describe it -- and at her age, I
worry about helicobacter (she's about 5).  Can helicobacter cause kidney
problems?  How does one check for helicobacter?
 
Let us know if you have any information. Thanks.
 
Linda, Lucky Charm, Chocolate Moose, and Zipper
[Posted in FML issue 2958]