From:
"US7"
Date: 2005-04-21 15:28:47 UTC
Subject: On the Subject of Adrenal Disease
To: <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Message-ID: <G9U3B1.327591C5@comcast.net>
This is how my my wife and I handle adrenal disease in our ferrets, on the =
advice of a very good vet. When one of our ferret shows signs of adrenal di=
sease, we just automatically do the surgery. We wait until there are defini=
te symptoms, usually identifiable hair loss. In all cases there have been t=
umors on one or both of the adrenal glands, and usually our vet has found o=
ther tumors as well. As a general kind of rule, if the ferret is barely sho=
wing symptoms of adrenal the tumor might not be big enough to spot and remo=
ve. It would seem to me that the faster you take out a tumor, the better, a=
s you would have a better chance at avoiding metastasis in the case of a ma=
lignancy. We have never done a Tennesee panel. It seems to be somewhat of a=
waste of money when that money could be used in the actual surgery costs.
Does this sound like a fairly intelligent way of handling adrenal disease (=
other than obviously being more cost effective, which is important to us as=
we own multiple ferrets)? Is there something we might not be thinking abou=
t? Are there any other treatment strategies that might work better? We are =
dealing with an adrenal ferret right now, and he'll be having surgery in th=
e next week or so. He has definitive hair loss.
Roary
Albuquerque, NM