From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2002-01-25 13:19:00 UTC
Subject: new info about ligation of the Vena Cava from vet, Deborah
Kemmerer
--
This is from Dr. Deborah Kemmerer who also has the website
http://members.atlantic.net/~weah/ferrets.html .
It is specifically about some interesting findings in relation to
doing a ligation of the Vena Cava. We have a ferret with a R adrenal
tumor that has grown into the vein who is right now being managed on
a partial removal and Lupron and is very happy fight now, so we'll
have to weigh these factors against the 10+ risk rate (+ because our
vets aren't used to this surgery).
I asked her for permission to carry this to the FHL beforehand; she
wrote it so it is her copyright.
At 1:22 PM -0500 1/24/02, Deborah W. Kemmerer, DVM wrote:
>Sure, you're welcome to send it wherever you like.
>I actually am not the originator of the ligation surgery. Dr. Leo Gates
>in San Antonio, TX has probably done many more than I have. The key to
>survival is that most ferret who have adrenals grown in to the vena cava
>have already established alternate blood flow through the vertebral veins,
>because the adrenal has put so much pressure on the vena cava that blood
>flow is already partially blocked. I have a good set of xrays showing the
>alternate blood flow with injected dye.
>It's also important for these ferrets to get hormone supplementation
>(Florinef) as the sudden withdrawal of the massive amounts of hormone
>produced by these large tumors can be fatal. I, too, was having low
>survival rates until I started supplementation immediately post-op. Now
>my survival rate is about 90%.
>I will have a video out pretty soon. We're actually shooting two videos
>concurrently. The first one will be basic techniques such as blood
>collection, bone marrow biopsy, iv cath installation, urinary cath
>installation, and humane euthanasia. It should be available in March
>sometime. The second video will include my right adrenalectomy technique.
>We hope to have that out by the fall.
>Hope that's helpful.
>Dr. K.