From:
Erin Simkins
Date: 2001-08-18 23:18:00 UTC
Subject: Adrenal Surgery on cardio ferret complete
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., AFERRETVET@c... wrote:
> Hi Erin,
> You are asking a tough question. Do the benefits of
> surgery (remove the adrenal gland that has "regrown")
> to treat the adrenal gland disease outweight the risk of
> surgery on a heart patient (death from anesthesia)?
> If he makes it through the surgery then yes, but if he
> dies then no. The heart problem would scare me away
> from surgery. If it were my ferret then I would go with Lupron.
> Hope that helps,
> Jerry Murray, DVM
> PS- there seems to be some confusion and incorrect use of the
> term "ectopic" in regards to adrenal glands. Ectopic means
> having adrenal tissue outside the adrenal gland (usually in
the
> fat pad by the adrenal gland). Most of you are describing
adrenal
> glands that were not completely removed (part of the capsule
or gland
> remains) and with time the gland "regrows" and becomes a
problem
> again.
Thank you for your post, Dr. Murray!
I returned from Dr. Weiss's office this evening. I'm happy to report
that Tigger, my boy with adrenal disease and cardiomyopathy, has made
it through surgery and is recovering just fine! The chest film prior
to our go/no-go decision showed his heart in wonderful condition! It
has actually IMPROVED since Dr. Weiss checked him at the very end of
last December. He said that the Enalapril can (as he has seen in
some cases) reverse some of the effects of cariomyopathy. Long story
short, he felt very confident that Tigger would do well in surgery so
I took a deep breath and trusted him!
He did indeed have ectopic tissue. Three small spots on the
underside of the vena cava. Dr. Weiss said it was very difficult to
find and had to dissect through a good deal of fat. Since they were
on the vena cava, he used the laser surgery to take them off. Tigger
also had 2 tumors on his pancreas so they were removed along with 20 -
25% of his pancreas. He looks sore (of course) but I'm glad I made
the decision I did. Thank you for everyone's input.
In addition to Tigger, my 14 month old PV girl Amira had adrenal
surgery. She had tumors bilaterally and the extra ectopic tissue was
also removed. Her mesentary lymphnode was slightly swollen so it was
biopsied to send off for pathology. I have a picture of the right
adrenal tumor and if it's a decent picture, I will submit it to the
list.
Thanks again.
Sincerely,
Erin Simkins
Education Director
American Ferret Association
www.ferret.org