From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2004-03-24 22:56:34 UTC
Subject: high blood calcium, blood protein spikes
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-Id: <7F9539BC-7DE6-11D8-8F94-000A95CD182C@mac.com>
Sherman went in for surgery today.
As is typical for Sherman (who can be seen playing in a photo from a
few days ago at
http://tingilinde.typepad.com/starstuff/2004/03/good_thoughts_f.html )
nothing is simple. (The fur loss is partly from his R adrenal tumor,
partly from long-term steroid use for IBD, and partly from shaving for
tests.)
History: he has had high blood proteins for about a year and recent
electrophoresis showed two spikes but the pathologists didn't know what
to make of it. Recently, he also has had high blood calcium. His
x-rays look okay but the concern that there might be something like
early multiple myeloma is present for now. He also has IBD of long
standing which had gotten very unresponsive to meds. We finally found
that it behaved well for steroid shots every 3 weeks but those also
caused him to gain a lot of fat which had to come off before this
surgery. During his dieting he first had a lot of intestinal bloat
which then resolved, and after a Lupron shot he began losing fat
unusually rapidly. At the same time he became very playful and
extremely active again so hopefully that accounts for much of that.
He did not respond as fully to the Lupron injection (a high level one)
as was expected.
Last year he lost his L adrenal. It had very strange and profuse
vascularization which was close to blowing out. At that time his R
adrenal was small and well separated from other organs. (He is our
second ferret in 22 to have a definite early (before a known age of 5
years) adrenal tumor.)
Now, the R adrenal was large and invading both liver and Vena Cava.
Our surgeon did a bang-up job of cleaning it out well though one side
of the Cava needed a hemoclip to be safest. The liver was very yellow
so biopsies of that were also taken.
So, he'll be on Florinef and Pred on his return tomorrow night. He
still has that recalcitrant IBD. No one knows why he has high blood
calcium levels and that remains a concern, and no one knows why he has
those blood protein spikes (also a concern).
We won't know until the results of his biopsies come back (and for
myeloma until the blood results are understood), but he might be lucky,
or he might have one of several possible malignancies.
Could people, please, post experiences with high blood proteins and
with high blood calcium?
End of ferrethealth Digest
***********************************