From:
sukiecrandall@telocity.com
Date: 2002-11-28 16:19:20 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] RE: Help, Ferret died after Surgery
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <17931603.1038500360474.JavaMail.root@scandium>
Honestly, adrenal surgeries are usually pretty routine. Right ones can get tricky but a good ferret vet can handle them with multiple different methods.
In 20 years with ferrets -- including the early years when over 10% (Some quoted numbers as high as 30% back then.) of ferrets were expected to never come through surgery -- we haven't lost even one ferret to surgery. We came close a few times, but our vets were used to ferrets, were good surgeons, and we provided careful post-op care.
Okay, first of all, usually a ferret is not allowed to come home 2 hours after major surgery. There is too much risk of the ferret not dealing with anesthesia well, or still having too low a body temperature.
In the early days when the death rate was higher the two major problems seemed to be that the wrong anesthesia was often used. It is best to use Iso or Sevo -- both gases -- because the anesthesia can be stopped rapidly without lasting negative effects if a proble occurs.
The ferret's temperature also absolutely has to be stable. One of the causes of death after surgery that we'd hear about a lot years ago involving falling body temperature. Vets tend to be very careful about this, having to make sure the body temp is high enough without risking injury.
Obviously, there are aother possible causes, but those are two that were very common.
If I were you I'd look for a vet who has a better success rate with the common types of surgery that ferrets undergo, either as the primary vet or for surgeries if your vet means that most of the ferrets with standard adrenal surgeries die, or if the vet is not taking anesthesia or body temp precautions. The statement that most ferrets who undergo adrenal surgery die is simply false. There are some more complicated procedures, like Vena Cava resectioning for a complicated R adrenal that can be risky, though.
Do you have more details? What side was the bad adrenal on? Were there complications? Was something more complex than just adrenal surgery attempted? What anesthesia was used? What sorts of post op care were advised? Just an off-hand question that would take the onus of the vet's statement that most ferrets die from adrenal surgery off the vet -- is there any chance that most of the local ferrets come from a local breeder's small line which reacts badly to anesthesia for a genetic cause or which has an underlying common flaw like a heart defect which makes surgery a risk?
Ferrets can die during or after surgery. The statement that most do, though, is frightening and inaccurate.