From:
Caitlyn Martin
Date: 2003-03-11 15:07:57 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Onion being agressive!
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-Id: <20030311100757.7c1928fd.whiteweasel@earthlink.net>
On Tue, 11 Mar 2003 02:42:19 +0000 (GMT+00:00)
annamfuller@hotmail.com wrote:
> as most of you have seen, i brought Onion to the vet and he had an
> operation to take out a tumour, and he had some x-rays that didn't
> show much but a swollen kidney. anywho, he's getting progressively
> agressive towards Wish. he sometimes will start sniffing at him, then
> lunge and bite him until Wish cries out and i have to stop them.
> im not sure what this means.
Fighting and Wish crying out could be part of normal dominance play. If
so, this will never resolve itself if you break them up. Let them work
this out among themselves unless Onion draws blood on Wish or if Wish
becomes so scared that he pees/poops. I don't know why Onion feels he
had to reassert himself as the dominant alpha, but it is distinctly
possible that this is all that is happening from your description.
> i know that the vet wanted to do some
> ultrasounds to see if the adrenal gland was enlarged
Our vet believes that to be a waste of time and money. In the few times
we tried it the ultrasound showed nothing but there was still an adrenal
tumor. Have you talked to your vet about the Tennessee Panel? That
isn't a terribly definitive test either, but it is more likely to give
an accurate result than an ultrasound.
Also, is Onion showing any other adrenal symptoms? Is there anything
else at all that would clearly point to adrenal? If not, our vet, who
tends to be conservative with illnesses requiring surgery, would
probably tell me to watch and wait to see if other symptoms develop. If
there were other clear symptoms, though, he'd probably go straight to an
exploratory surgery and skip the expensive and often inconclusive
diagnostic work.
As usual, I must add that I am not a vet, just a moderately experienced
ferret owner who had dealt with adrenal ferrets way too often over the
past five years.
All the best,
Caity and the non-stop nine