>From:    "Beth A. Plodzik DVM" <[log in to unmask]>
>I have been told that ferrets have no different blood types?  For future
>reference, does anyone have any experience with blood transfers?
 
It's true that ferrets don't have different blood types.  There's some
information on this topic in "Ferrets, Rabbits and Rodents - Clinical
medicine and surgery."
 
I've participated in one transfusion.  I got a call that there was a ferret
at our clinic that was severly anemic due to flea infestation and it needed
blood or it would not survive.  I scooped up my biggest and healthiest male
at the time, who happened to be Beasley.
 
We got to the clinic and they took us right in and figured that by Beasley's
size (3 pounds) he could afford to give 10 cc's of blood, which they took.
Unfortunately, the owner of the anemic ferret waited too long to get medical
care and the little girl ferret died in spite of our efforts.  Made me so
mad to see a ferret die from something as preventable as fleas.
 
That's the extent of my experience with ferret blood transfusions.  Not
very much medical information there.  Check out Hillyer & Quesenberry's
previously mentioned book for a more technical explanation of the lack of
a need to type a ferret's blood for a transfusion.
 
For the ferrets,
Mike
 
* Michael F. Janke, [log in to unmask]
* Secretary, South Florida Ferret Club and Rescue, Inc.
*
* Visit our shelter's web site: http://www.miamiferret.org
* Visit the Adrenal/Insulinoma web site: http://www.miamiferret.org/FHC
[Posted in FML issue 2550]