From:
Alicia D. Beth
Date: 2001-07-19 13:58:00 UTC
Subject: Florian / difficult right adrenal -- happy update
Hello again to all ferret enthusiasts! And thanks to all concerned list
members who responded on- and off-list with ideas, suggestions, and vet
recommendations for Florian, our 3-year-old with a right adrenal tumor
invading his vena cava.
I am happy to report that Florian underwent traditional surgery to remove
the tumor Tuesday, 7/17, and is doing well. As the 48-hour post-operative
mark is just 30 minutes away, I think he might be out of the woods! One
recommendation from a list member for a surgeon in Austin supported our
vet's referral (whose name I didn't even mention in my original post), so
this made us much more comfortable with the original referral. As we
didn't want to delay care while researching the other recommendations
(Thanks so much to all who responded -- We got recommendations for vets in
Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, etc.), we went ahead and made an appointment
with the local referral (Dr. Stephen Kerpsack at Central Texas Veterinary
Specialty Hospital).
Dr. Kerpsack saw Florian last Friday for an initial consultation, and on
Tuesday, completely removed his right adrenal and tumor. He was able to
remove all of the tumor that he saw, including the portion that was
invading the vena cava. Because he had to remove a portion of the vena
cava, there was considerable blood loss, but Florian bounced back fairly
quickly. In fact, because he will be confined to his cage for a few days,
yesterday, when we got him home, we took the ladder out of our 3-story
cage, so that Florian would not go up to the 2nd or 3rd story and risk
falling. Florian has never been a climber (EVER -- even before the adrenal
symptoms started showing up), but I went in a few hours after he'd gotten
home, and he was up in his hammock on the 3rd story. Don't ask me how -- I
took in Florian and got back a superferret! Needless to say, we put the
ladder back -- better to have him walking up to the 3rd story, if he's
going to do that, than to have him climbing up the cage.
So... aside from a nasty abdominal wound, some bad bruising, and .25 mL
Clavamox drops twice a day (which he HATES), he's doing well. Our other
two ferrets are super hyper, so Florian is isolated right now (with
occasional well-wishes from his sisters). I'm sure that when he is
completely reunited with Gretel and Galadriel, he'll be back to normal.
Again, thanks so much for all the responses to our post and for all the
great on-list discussion of similar problems and situations. So helpful!
Alicia, Bradley, and Kieran Beth
(and Florian, Gretel, and Galadriel)