From:
Caitlyn M. Martin
Date: 2001-10-05 23:46:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] adrenal again?
Hi, Sara,
The usual disclaimer applies: I am not a vet, and any diagnosis should be made
by a qualified, experienced ferret vet. I have, however, five ferrets who have
had adrenal disease (two now, three in the past), so I've had a little
experience in this.
Your guess is probably a good one. Rommel sounds like he may have a recurrence
of adrenal disease in the other gland. My ferret Pertwee has lost both his
adrenal glands, first the left, then the right. It's been almost a year and a
half, and he's still here, crazy and bouncing off the walls as usual. There is
every chance that Rommel will be just fine.
I agree with Patty, though. You really have to make sure your vet has
experience both with doing right adrenal surgery (assuming he lost his left
before) and also post-surgical care of bilateral adrenal ferrets. I would find
out what technique he or she uses for right adrenal surgeries (cryo, vena cava
ligation, or ???). If you can't get a solid, certain answer to that question
you may need to find another vet. Our vet did ligate the vena cava.
The main issue after surgery is making sure Rommel's electrolytes stay where
they should be. If they get too far off he could go into Addisonian Crisis.
This did happen to Pertwee, the first time my vet ran into the problem. He
nearly died. The problem was that Pertwee needed a much higer dosage of one
medication that most ferrets do, and didn't respond to the other at all, so an
alternative had to be found. Fortunately, my ferts go to a very experienced
vet who could cope with these issues. Hopefully you won't have this sort of
problem with Rommel, but it's important that you have an experienced ferret
vet, just in case.
In the end Pertwee recovered completely. There's every reason to believe
Rommel will too.
All the best,
Caity