From:
Diane Burman
Date: 2001-03-27 16:34:00 UTC
Subject: [Ferret-Health-list] Cody - elderly male urinary problem?
Cody is a rescue I adopted at about 6 or 7yo. He is now about
9 or 10yo. When I adopted him he had just had adrenal surgery.
I don't remember which side was taken out. At that time no
biopsy was done but I was told it looked like adrenal
carcinoma and that he probably didn't have much longer.
The next 2 years he did fine until about a year ago when he
was diagnosed with insulinoma. He is now on 1/4 of a 5mg
tablet of Pred 2x/day. Last week when blood work was done his
glucose was 161. Last summer his coat began to thin so I
figured the other adrenal gland was acting up. At his age he
wasn't a good surgical candidate. Last December he was
examined because he seemed to be losing a bit of weight and
was a little dehydrated. At that time they were unable to do
blood work even though he had been fasted because there was
too much fat in his blood. The vet felt though that he was in
renal failure because his urine was very dilute. I was
instructed to keep up the Pred dosage and to supplement his
diet with very watery mush to increase his fluid intact. Also,
to add .25cc of Pet Tinic to his mush 2x/day.
He was re-examined last week where we were able to run the
blood work. Surprise, surprise, he is concentrating his urine
just fine and his BUN and Creatinine were fine (17 and .6
respectively). As mentioned earlier, his glucose was 161.
Everything else looked fine. An ultrasound was done of his
heart and abdomen. His heart looked great. The ultrasound of
his bladder showed little specks floating around. My vet
explained that is was probably an irritation in his bladder
such as an infection. If I read my vet's handwriting
correctly, Cody has been put on Orbanos, 1 tablet 1x/day for
10 days. BTW, Cody urinates a fairly large amount each time he
goes and there seems to be no evidence of straining.
Could this apparent urinary tract infection be caused by the
apparent resumption of his adrenal disease? Even though he
seems to urinate freely, could this be a sign that his
prostate is impeding flow? My vet did not see an enlarged
prostate when he did the ultrasound.
I'm just wondering what are Cody's alternatives for treatment
given his age. I'd hate to think he might suffer recurrent
urinary infections due to the adrenal problem. Would Lupron
help here? I'd asked about Lupron at my vet's office last fall
but was told all it might do is allow Cody to regrow his coat
so I shouldn't do it. After reading about Lupron on this list
it seems that Lupron can do quite a bit more than that.
My thanks to all of you,
Diane & the gang
PS Meg's sage to follow tonight or tomorrow. She's the other
"stumper".