Hello, I have a question for any vets or ferret owners who may have had similar experiences. One of my ferrets, Seera, who is a 7 yr old female that I have had since she was a baby, has been acting abnormally. She waddles rather than walks, and sometimes has a "drunken" walk to the point where she has trouble walking, she acts like she is chewing gum (I know this can be a sign of mini seizures in dogs), and lately, she has stopped drinking out of the water bottle, although she will drink out of a water bowl. She has also lost some weight, although she is not in the danger zone of skinny yet. I took her in for a blood test today, and these were the results: ALB: 2.91 g/dl ALKP: 244 U/L High ALT: 951 U/L Extremely high BUN: 22.8 mg/dl CREA: 0.39 mg/dl GLU: 101.7 mg/dl PHOS: 5.25 mg/dl TP: 8.53 g/dl High GLOB: 5.62 g/dl High My first thought was insulinoma, but her glucose is fine. The blood test was done after a 4 hr fast, although she was given linatone while the vet was trying to get the blood sample. Considering the normal high end of the ALT is listed at around 250 U/L, hers is extremely high. Her stools look okay, I have not been able to catch a glimpse of what her urine looks like, although when I looked at her today, her anus was slightly protruding, with a little bit of stool matted in her hair. Rabbits, Rodents and Ferrets has only a brief column about liver disease, listing tumors as the most likely cause, and Biology and Diseases of the Ferret has pretty much nothing that I could find on liver disease in ferrets. Given her age, I am loath to put her under the stress of an exploratory surgery, unless I knew for sure there was something to remove, and that it would do any good. Does anyone have any experience with this? I really don't want to lose this little girl, as she was my second ferret, and she has a sister the same age as her, who other than a cataract, is doing fine. Neither one of these girls has ever been sick before, other than a skin tumor. As of today I am starting her on .5cc of pediapred, and amoxicillin. Are there any tests that would give a more definitive diagnosis? You can e-mail me at [log in to unmask] Thank you. Dooks and kisses to your fuzzies, Shelley Knudsen Pre-Veterinary Student UNK [log in to unmask] http://www.tcgcs.com/~ferrets 402-463-0190 402-461-6541 fax: 253-981-1054 "It is not what life throws at us, but what we do with it, that defines who we are." - Author unknown [Posted in FML issue 2991]