Diagnosis of chronic kidney disease can be challenging in ferrets. Physiological creatinine values are lower than in dogs and cats and marked elevations may only be detected in advanced disease. In canine and feline patients, specific staging, and treatment guidelines are available, based on serum creatinine, symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) levels, presence of proteinuria, and blood pressure measurement. No such guidelines exist for ferrets, and there is a lack of data concerning certain laboratory parameters. Blood and urine samples were taken from 60 clinically healthy pet ferrets to establish species -specific reference intervals for serum SDMA and urine protein/creatinine ratio (UPC ratio). Liquid -chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) was used for determination of serum SDMA, a colorimetric spectrophotometric method for urinary protein and an enzymatic method for urine creatinine. The calculated reference interval for serum SDMA (2.78-7.66 mu g/dL) was found to be lower than in dogs and cats, while the UPC ratio is similar to dogs ( <0.5).

Keeping exotic animals and especially pet birds are getting more and more popular, and on the other hand due to the increased awareness of nature, people are taking several rescued birds to the veterinarians. The authors compared the macroscopical and radioanatomical structures of the skulls of the African Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus) and the Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) which are frequently examined in veterinary clinics. The knowledge of these anatomical structures is necessary to identify pathological alterations in clinical relations.

The authors performed radiographic examination on the head of birds, and concluded that general anaesthesia and the use of different restraining instruments is necessary in order to obtain good quality radiographs. Comparing skull radiographs taken in vivo and on museum specimens of the same species they found significant differences primarily caused by the lack of soft tissues and secondarily by the lack of small bones lost in the course of preparing museum skeleton specimens by the taxidermists. Altogether 777 radiographs of 185 specimens in 128 species belonging to 72 families were taken and analyzed.