Message Number: SG8643 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Weasellover@aol.com
Date: 2004-05-01 02:07:58 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] emergancy stomach surgery....
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <1d3.1fccd834.2dc4607e@aol.com>

In a message dated 4/30/2004 8:21:14 PM Eastern Daylight Time, elcross@vt.edu
writes:
The cause was that he has something that has made the lining of his stomach
(the inner lining I believe) thicken, which creates a narrowed exit from the
stomach to the small intestines. So Dr XXX preformed his surgery and has
reported that all has gone well. Now I must wait and hope that he recovers
enough that he can come home tomorrow so that I don't have to wait until
Monday
Elizabeth,

This sounds like something that my ferret Bubbles had last summer. She
had been vomiting and losing weight and she was being treated for insulinoma
but it turns out she didn't have insulinoma. Her stomach became full of air
and she was in a lot of pain and nothing showed up on the x-rays because of all
the air. At the recommendation of Dr. Williams I took her to an excellent
hospital here in Baltimore for emergency surgery for a blockage, she had the
surgery with in hours and made a full recovery after spending 5 days in intensive
care. She was near death right before the surgery. It turned out that she had a
thickened duodenum and it was the result of inflammatory bowel disease. Her
food wasn't leaving her stomach at all that is why all the gas build up. She
had her stomach opened and cleaned out and her duodenum repaired and also had
her left adrenal removed. The tissue was sent of for testing and came back
negative for cancer. Sadly though Bubbles got sick this past December with a cough
and we thought she had an enlarged heart and the doctor felt a thickening in
her abdominal cavity so we had a sonogram and biopsy, which came back as
necrotic tissue. So we scheduled exploratory surgery but she was rushed to the vets
in severe pain two days before her scheduled surgery and she went in for
surgery that morning, it turns out she had a large mass in her abdomal cavity and
tumors on her pancreas and kidney, we let her go on the operating table (she
was in for exploratory since the biopsy for the tumor had come back
incluclusive for cancer). Her severe pain that day was a pancreitis attack. I don't know
if any of this is of help to you but I thought I would share it with you just
in case.

Holly