From:
Barbara Carlson
Date: 2002-02-12 09:48:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Cancerous adrenal? Chemo?
> That all being said, she's sending it out for biopsy,
> but can any doctor or ferret owner tell me what chemo
> therapy is going to be like for Quark, if it is
> cancer? He'll be 7 in May and it's not the money at
> all that is the issue, it's the quality of life.
Personally, I would not do chemo on a ferret that old. I doubt I'd do it on
any ferret, but that's my opinion. I've had a number of ferrets with
adrenal disease and almost all came back cancerous, but that didn't seem to
make all that much difference to their recovery and quality of life. My one
ferret had his second adrenal surgery at age 3, it was cancerous and the
vet couldn't get it all because it was wrapped around the vena cava (this
was years ago before cryosurgery was available) and he lived another 4
years before tumors finally got him. So if that was my ferret, I wouldn't
worry about chemo.
--Barb--