From:
"April Armstrong Campbell"
Date: 2005-05-18 16:36:07 UTC
Subject: RE: Fat Ferret
To: <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Cc: <Jimw1956@cs.com>
Message-ID: <11930515.1116445477842.JavaMail.nobody@vanadium.smartgroups.com>
Hi. It might still be possible that overall weight gain could be
tumor-related; I wouldn't rule it out yet (though it could certainly be
something else). My Shannon's ONLY symptom of her very bad adrenal
disease was that she got fat, all over her body. This symptom of
adrenal disease is less common than the obvious alopecia and weight
LOSS, but it is still possible. She turned out to have a very
aggressive (tripled in size in two-three weeks! According to ultrasound)
right-sided adrenal tumor the size of my fist upon excision (she had
only been 660g prior to the tumor-she wasn't a big girl), which was
growing into her liver, a kidney, and completely involved her vena cava
(the compromise of that was too much for her and she died a day after
surgery).
I don't mean to scare you, but it is worth doing an ultrasound and maybe
an adrenal panel depending on what your vet finds on exam.
Splenomegaly really just involves the abdomen itself getting noticeably
larger, not the whole body. Seasonal weight gain is usually a winter
thing.
I'd get to the vet sooner rather than later to be on the safe side,
especially if this is more of a quick-onset thing.
Best wishes,
April