From:
Dr. Bruce Williams
Date: 2001-02-28 13:46:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Ferri-lu"s autopsy
I am sorry for your loss - unexpected deaths, even from simply
surgeries do happen, but non one expects that it will happen to
them. This is truly a devastating moment.
While it may be painful, to make sense of the autopsy results, we
probably will have to visit the operative and post-operative period
in order to answer questions that MAY help us understand what
happened.
The first thing we need to do is get the complete autopsy report.
Often there are other clues or lesions which may help us. How many
tissues were taken, and did any other tissues show changes? Blood in
the lungs is not necessarily due to hemorrhage. Blood may leak into
the lungs for a number of reasons beside actual hemorrhage. You may
see it in the air spaces as a esult of shock (when blood pools in the
capillaires, it often leaks into the lung) or simply when the animal
lays on one side too long in the post-operative or even post-mortem
period. Blood pools on the down side, and if you sample that section,
you may get a reading of blood in the lungs. There are a number of
tricks that pathologists do to prevent such things from occurring,
but they are often overlooked in a busy practice.
Most unexpected deaths in ferrets are generally the result of
anesthesia. What type of anesthesia was used - any injectables? Any
pain relief? Was anyone monitoring her temperature, and what was
done to keep her temperature up after surgery?
did she have any history of disease that may have caused bad response
to anesthesia - possible heart disease?
Before we can answer the question of why she died, we must be able to
examine the events and details of how and when she died.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM
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--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., fuzzyslave@y... wrote:
> My ferrei-lu had a bi-op of a growth on the ear done on the 21rst
of
> Feb.She came thru ok.I fed her some chicken gravy at 1 pm.went to
the
> DR's myself.Rushed to pick uo both girls,Nutmeg had Adernal,also
has
> Insulinoma.Ferri-lu had died just minutes before I got there.Vet
was
> upset as this was a simple surgery.Did an autopsy to find out why
she
> died.Those results are back.She died from blood in the
lungs.How/why
> would she hemmorege like this?