>Our ferret Bambi, a three year old female, last week developed jaundice.
>We took her to our vet and his diagnosis was a disfunction of the liver.
>The results of her blood work are as follows:  ...
 
Dear Cathy and Don - First off, these values appear to be very off - I think
that there must have been a problem in transcription.  The glucose, calcium,
and bilirubin levels are between ten and a hundred times too high (and as
such, not compatible with life as we know it), so I can't really comment on
the blood values.
 
In my experience, icterus is much more commonly the result of a rapid
hemolysis, the dissolution of red blood cells rather than liver disease.
Liver disease is very uncommon in ferrets.  Normally, in hemolytic anemia,
you have elevation of the hemoglobin, but not the way abnormal level here.
Prednisone is the drug of choice for hemolytic anemias, but many of them
carry a poor prognosis.
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP              Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
Dept. of Veterinary Pathology               [log in to unmask]
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
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[Posted in FML issue 1546]