About triglyceride

[bare01]

I have a 3-month-old boy ferret.
He went to the hospital yesterday and had a second vaccination.
And he did a blood test.

Blood tests showed that his TRIG value (triglyceride) was abnormally high.
Usually 22-156, but his value was 375 or more. (The number is too high to be measured)

He will have a third vaccination next month.
At that time he will do a blood test again.

I will try to improve his diet.
I want to give him a low-fat meal, so I will give him meat except for the white fat part.

Please let me know if there is another way to lower the TRIG value.

[Sherry]

A third vaccination? Do you mean his distemper series?
As for the high trig, let me check with someone else.

[katt]

A high triglyceride level is typically related to diet, exercise, and above all - genetics. It is also slightly affected by that timing of your last meal - if you just ate your triglycerides will be higher. High triglycerides can increase risk of pancreatitis, and heart disease. It is very odd that they tested triglycerides on his labs, that’s not usually part of the routine lab panel ordered for ferrets. There aren’t many meds in humans that are great at lowering triglycerides; and they all have significant side effect profiles - much less meds for ferrets. Thus, it’s not a lab you can do much about so why did they test it in a healthy ferret?

As for how to lower it, I wouldn’t restrict your ferret’s dietary fat *too* much. Ferrets need get in their diet. The triglyceride levels are significantly affected by genetics so there’s only so much you’ll be able to do for that piece. Avoiding excess fats and picking leaner cuts of meat may help some - just don’t go crazy and try to avoid fat entirely. Adding a little fish oil may help - Omega-3s (esp with EPA/DHA) fab lower triglycerides (in humans by ~20%). And don’t feed a fatty meal right before his next draw, and try to time the draw a bit further from his last meal/snack.

[bare01]

Jul 21, 2019 8:54:30 GMT -5 Sherry said:

A third vaccination? Do you mean his distemper series?
As for the high trig, let me check with someone else.

Yes, it is a distemper vaccine.
Two or three vaccinations are given in the first year of birth in Japan.
My veterinarian recommends that he do it three times. Recently, 3 vaccinations have become common.
And from the next year, he perform vaccination once a year.

[bare01]

Jul 21, 2019 10:33:09 GMT -5 katt said:

A high triglyceride level is typically related to diet, exercise, and above all - genetics. It is also slightly affected by that timing of your last meal - if you just ate your triglycerides will be higher. High triglycerides can increase risk of pancreatitis, and heart disease. It is very odd that they tested triglycerides on his labs, that’s not usually part of the routine lab panel ordered for ferrets. There aren’t many meds in humans that are great at lowering triglycerides; and they all have significant side effect profiles - much less meds for ferrets. Thus, it’s not a lab you can do much about so why did they test it in a healthy ferret?

As for how to lower it, I wouldn’t restrict your ferret’s dietary fat *too* much. Ferrets need get in their diet. The triglyceride levels are significantly affected by genetics so there’s only so much you’ll be able to do for that piece. Avoiding excess fats and picking leaner cuts of meat may help some - just don’t go crazy and try to avoid fat entirely. Adding a little fish oil may help - Omega-3s (esp with EPA/DHA) fab lower triglycerides (in humans by ~20%). And don’t feed a fatty meal right before his next draw, and try to time the draw a bit further from his last meal/snack.

Thank you for letting me know in detail.

My veterinarian planned to do a minimal check.
They put his blood into a machine that centrifuges. Then, the part which becomes transparent originally became cloudy.
They showed it to me and said:
Young ferrets usually do not become overcast. This indicates that the value of fat is high. I am worried. I want to increase the number of inspection items.
I answered. Of course, do it.
As a result, it turned out that the value of neutral fat is abnormally high.

He ate two chicken wings before a blood test.
Those had white fat.
I doubt that is the cause.
I will also be careful about the last meal at the next examination.

He eats 3-5 drops of salmon oil every morning meal.
Should I replace this with Omega 3?
I do not know the difference between salmon oil and omega-3.

I do not intend to reduce his diet. Change the contents.
From today he eats meat with white fat removed. (If it is chicken, remove skin (fat))
And change half the meat to low fat meat.
For example, chicken thigh 80 g → chicken thigh 40 g + chicken breast 40 g
For example, beef 80g → beef 40g + kangaroo meat 40g
I will improve his diet without becoming too nervous.
(Oh, have I been told this sentence correctly ...?)

What kind of exercise should he do?
He is chasing toys, playing with me, diving into cardboard toys I made and playing in a pool of rice.
He has finished his second vaccine and I want to take him to the park. However, summer will come in Japan. Japan's summer is too hot for him to go out.
What other exercises can he do indoors?

[abbeytheferret6]

Japan's summer is too hot for him to go out.
What other exercises can he do indoor

The only thing I have that encourages my ferrets to move around a little more in the house are tubes. I use tubes that drain water away from house (cheap). I have three long ones. You can put them behind your couch or up against the baseboard of walls to get them out of way.  While not an exercise, they do crawl in them which encourages them to move around a bit more. You can also tape boxes in a staggering way to encourage climbing. May become a stash place for food   

[peacexlovexpets]

Jul 21, 2019 21:03:33 GMT -5 bare01 said:

He ate two chicken wings before a blood test.
Those had white fat.
I doubt that is the cause.
I will also be careful about the last meal at the next examination.

He eats 3-5 drops of salmon oil every morning meal.
Should I replace this with Omega 3?
I do not know the difference between salmon oil and omega-3.

If you are running a blood panel, it will be inaccurate if your animal has been fed in the last 6 (or more) hours.  Usually they tell you to not even feed a treat.

The nutrients obtained from food via the digestive system go straight into the blood stream and get dispersed to tissues over the course of several hours.  Because of this, if your pet ate anything too close to the blood test, you will get a reading on what the pet ate, not what its normal fasting level is at.  This is really important when measuring trig (fat), carb (sugars), and creatinine (protein).

I would just make sure your pet fasts (no food-they sometimes say no water as well in order to get a more accurate RBC (red blood cell) count-ask your vet what they would like you to do).

Fish oils contain high amounts of Omega-3s.  There is no difference in getting an omega-3 capsule to feeding salmon oil (as almost all omega-3 capsules are sourced from fish oil).

[bare01]

Dear abbeytheferret6

Thank you for searching for him. For me who is not good at English, it is almost impossible to find English literature. So I'm very happy that you searched for it.
However, I did not understand the sentence correctly. Does that mean that high fat diets accumulate triglycerides?

Tubes are a very good idea. The tube should be absolutely rejoicing as he plays well in a cylinder of cardboard. I will head to the shop to buy it right away.

[bare01]

Dear peacexlovexpets

Thank you for letting me know in detail.

Initially he had no plans to have a blood test. I told the veterinarian on the day that he also wanted to test his blood. I gave him a meal before a blood test. I think that is one of the causes of numerical anomalies.

I understand that thanks to you, when doing his blood test, I have to be careful about his last meal. I will do it on his next blood test. And I hope that his figures go down.

Thank you for telling me about Omega 3 and Salmon Oil.
I give him salmon oil as it is.

[abbeytheferret6]

To me, it reads that an excessive amount of fat can cause high triglycerides --well at least in the liver.
whether that would show up in the blood I do not know---no biology major here The Information is all I could find.

[peacexlovexpets]

Jul 23, 2019 4:20:22 GMT -5 abbeytheferret6 said:

To me, it reads that an excessive amount of fat can cause high triglycerides --well at least in the liver.
whether that would show up in the blood I do not know---no biology major here The Information is all I could find.

Excessive fat deposition on the body would read with high triglycerides as the body has a harder time keeping the nutrients (fat) at bay and it floats around where it is needed in the body.

Considering the ferret is so young, I would assume it is immediate diet based and not an overall health concern at this point in time.

[Heather]

Please....fasting is not recommended for ferrets prior to procedures, except to do a fasting BG and even then it's recommended that you state when you fed so they can do an approximation of the values. Ferrets especially baby ferrets require fat as a major part of their nutritional requirements. Do not go removing it thinking this will reduce the values. I would suggest that the next time you get it tested you feed lean meats like 'roo rather than a fattier chicken meat. Ferrets require fat, make it too lean and you will discover that you've created a nutritional imbalance
ciao

[bare01]

Jul 23, 2019 4:20:22 GMT -5 abbeytheferret6 said:

To me, it reads that an excessive amount of fat can cause high triglycerides --well at least in the liver.
whether that would show up in the blood I do not know---no biology major here The Information is all I could find.

Thank you for explaining the paper in an easy-to-understand manner. I was relieved to understand it.

[bare01]

Jul 24, 2019 14:18:01 GMT -5 peacexlovexpets said:

Jul 23, 2019 4:20:22 GMT -5 abbeytheferret6 said:

To me, it reads that an excessive amount of fat can cause high triglycerides --well at least in the liver.
whether that would show up in the blood I do not know---no biology major here The Information is all I could find.

Excessive fat deposition on the body would read with high triglycerides as the body has a harder time keeping the nutrients (fat) at bay and it floats around where it is needed in the body.

Considering the ferret is so young, I would assume it is immediate diet based and not an overall health concern at this point in time.

I understood about it. Thank you for teaching me.

I am not nervous about trying to improve his diet. Now I'm switching his diet to "little" low fat. His next blood test will also take care of the last meal, so the numbers will probably be normal. We will also report in this thread if we get results.

[bare01]

Jul 24, 2019 23:27:49 GMT -5 Heather said:

Please....fasting is not recommended for ferrets prior to procedures, except to do a fasting BG and even then it's recommended that you state when you fed so they can do an approximation of the values. Ferrets especially baby ferrets require fat as a major part of their nutritional requirements. Do not go removing it thinking this will reduce the values. I would suggest that the next time you get it tested you feed lean meats like 'roo rather than a fattier chicken meat. Ferrets require fat, make it too lean and you will discover that you've created a nutritional imbalance
ciao

My expression may have been bad. do not worry. I have not reduced the amount of his meal. On the contrary, the amount of his meal is increasing steadily. His weight has now increased to 1035g.
And I have not provided him a meal to "completely" eliminate fat. I also know that baby ferrets require fat. So I also give him fat. That is, I am giving him a "little" low-fat meal. For example, I give him chicken thighs, but not chicken skin. I will give chicken breast and chicken breast on the diet just before his next blood test.

Sorry, I do not know what "roo" is. Is that about kangaroos?
Yesterday he challenged kangaroos, but he does not seem to like it ((+ _ +))
I will mix it with his favorite meat and give him, increasing the kind of protein he can eat.