From:
"April Armstrong Campbell"
Date: 2003-11-26 07:28:25 UTC
Subject: RE: Lupron studies and long term use
To: <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Message-ID: <004501c3b3ee$e15183f0$7543bd42@bigbox>
"Does anyone REALLY know the condition of their ferret before starting Lupr=
on therapy? "
I'm not really sure what is meant here, but we had to abort a right adrenal=
ectomy on my former foster (and current permanent family member!), Bandit, =
because his tumor was "the biggest" my vet "had ever seen" (before my Shann=
on's...) and was quite wrapped up in his vena cava. He was definitely symp=
tomatic, with hair loss, mounting behavior, and a slightly enlarged prostat=
e, and he was urinating frequently and in small quantity. We had done full=
bloodwork panels, fecal tests, urinalyses and ultrasounds to determine his=
health status overall as well as his adrenal status.
We opted to start Lupron therapy before a second attempt with an even bette=
r surgeon in the hopes that we might shrink the adrenal tumor somewhat firs=
t. Upon the first exploratory, all of his other internal organs appeared h=
ealthy, and blood values were normal for the most part.
After three months of Lupron therapy (125 micrograms per injection), the tu=
mor did not shrink-confirmed by ultrasound-but his prostate did, and his ur=
ination habits returned to normal, with lots of hair regrowth (in fact, he =
turned from a regular sable to a black hooded sable!). His mounting behavi=
or continues, much to the chagrin of my very large (and apparently extremel=
y stupid--why doesn't he get his larger-than-everyone-else's-butt up and MO=
VE!!!!) albino, Finnegan, who is the only ferret Bandit chews on and tries=
to mount.
We are currently considering a shunting procedure (I accidentally referred =
to this as a stenting procedure previously, which somehow I didn't notice t=
ill someone pointed it out!) to gradually close off his vena cava (which is=
already partially occluded) in the hopes that we will be able to finally r=
emove to right adrenal even if it compromoses the cava.
I lost my Shannon last month two days after right adrenal surgery which com=
promised her vena cava; the tumor was the size of my fist and growing into =
her liver, and turned out to be a VERY aggressive (grew out of nowhere over=
the course of two months or so) malignant tumor, i.e. carcinoma, so she li=
kely wouldn't have survived long after surgery even if the cava hadn't been=
compromised by its position. The rest of her internal organs appeared nor=
mal at time of surgery and on recent xrays, ultrasounds and echocardiograms=
. Her bloodwork was otherwise normal as well. We never used Lupron on her=
.=
Anyway, Bandit's other organs, after three months of Lupron, still seem to =
be functioning quite normally at this point, and he has only seemed to bene=
fit from our using it. I know that three months is not really long-term us=
e, but I thought you might be interested in our experience. =
The clinic I used to work at, which sees a lot of ferrets, has had good res=
ults with long-term Lupron on patients for whom, for whatever reason, surge=
ry is not an option, but we do always try surgery whenever possible as the =
best option.
-April AC
FYI, Bandit's torn ligament seems to be healing well, and he is now startin=
g to put weight on it again. I would, however, still be interested in seei=
ng the records/office notes/surgical reports from the ferret whose owner is=
on this list who had a TPLO-my orthopedic surgeon at my clinic and I are V=
ERY interested!