I picked up Cassie at the vet today.  She seems to be feeling a little
better; she played very briefly with a new teddy bear I bought for her this
morning, and even chuckled a little.  She's still very tired, but any
improvement is wonderful to see.
 
I'm afraid all the tests we ran didn't reveal anything definite.  He did a
urinalysis, blood panel and took X-rays.  All that was shown was that she's
slightly anemic and has an elevated anti-body count (but *not* an elevated
white cell count).  The x-rays showed nothing unusual, and no noticeable
changes since she was last x-rayed in February.  It still could be something
minor or something serious, but several serious things have been ruled out.
As a general treatment the vet gave her a steroid shot (dexamethasone?) and
antibiotic shot (can't make out his handwriting on that one, but it starts
with D also).  We'll have to see how she does over the next week or so.
 
I was going to include all Cassie's test results so that anyone with medical
opinions to share could offer them, but that would make my post much too
long.  I'll just include the closing comments from the report.  For anyone
who'd like to see the whole report, I'll put it up on a web page at:
 
http://www.cs.uregina.ca/~john/tests.html
 
Once again, if you have medical experience and any of this seems to point to
something specific, I'd be grateful for your opinions or advice.
 
Comments from Cassie's lab report:
  Chemistry - NSQ to run sodium, potassium, CO2, anion gap.  Albumin low
  normal, glob slightly increased.  Other values appear to be relatively
  normal compared to companion animal ranges.
  CBC - Mild normocytic-hypochromic non-responsive anemia - anemia may not
  be severe enough to stimulate regenerative response.  Platelets and
  leukocytes adequate.
  Urinalysis - Rare CBC seen. Occasional bacteria may not be significant in
  free catch sample.
 
Thanks by the way to everyone who has responded so far. I'll keep you all
posted. Bye for now.
 
--
John Rosloot, Caregiver to Cassidy and Sammy
With loving memories of my dear departed Buddy
Technical analyst, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
http://www.cs.uregina.ca/~john/ferrets.html
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[Posted in FML issue 1664]