what do you use for enlarged spleens?

[miamiferret2]

i know that jennifer (mustelidmusk) and i have used high quality colloidal silver in the past for enlarged spleens. has anyone else used it or do you use anything else?

[joclyn]

enlarged spleens are very common when adrenal disease is present. i'm not sure what the connection is - never had time to ask the vet about it during the lupron clinics (she was always in a rush since the clinic was run on a first-come; first-served basis and she didn't like to keep any of us waiting longer than was needed).

infections will also cause the spleen to enlarge - that's one of the organs that deals with eliminating infections from the system.

boo boo (who'd been on lupron for more than a year at the time) had an enlarged spleen and then went anemic (almost lost him - big thx to oberon for donating blood). i did research and spoke with numerous vets and the conclusion was that he had a severe infection in the spleen. he was treated with 2 dif antibiotics and an extremely high dose of prednisolone - along with carafate and prilosec to counteract the high dose of pred.

that was almost 2 years ago - he recovered fully and just turned 6 last month. his spleen has not become enlarged again - not once in all this time.

[Sherry]

My vet also told me that sometimes, the spleens enlarge for no particular reason.
As for colloidal silver, or anything else for reducing spleen size, haven't used it.

[joclyn]

yes, i've heard that as well. i think there is a reason, though, and that reason is adrenal disease with no other indications.

boo had had an enlarged spleen off & on for most of his life - he showed loss of fur on base of tail before a year old. finola also has periodic enlarged spleen - and did as a kit as well and she showed as adrenal at 6 months old.

all my others that are adrenal have also had it before treatment was started for adrenal - with it going away after lupron was started, and, in taco's case, he went right on the desi and his spleen reduced within a week.

when i was going to the lupron clinic, she always checked their spleens. very specifically - so, there's definitely a connection.

[Deleted]

colloidal silver can help to shrink spleens in some cases. Since colloidal combats infection, I have suspected hat there may be some low-grade infection involved - or perhaps some systemic inflammatory response. It has been my experience that IBD ferrets may be a little more susceptible to enlargement of the spleen - but this may be coincidence. The correlation between spleen/infection/IBD goes along with the "inflammatory profile.

Some believe that a minor enlargement of the spleen as a ferret ages may be a mechanism that supports a fight/flight response since the spleen can quickly dump a lot of blood into the system.

jennifer