From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2005-07-22 20:04:12 UTC
Subject: RE: question on spleen removal
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <3829979.1122062652730.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Author wrote:
> my ferret is 5.5 and his spleen is enlarged.
Whether or not to remove an enlarged spleen is best left up to the treating vet. It there are not masses or uneven margins your vet may choose to just leave it, unless it is large enough that it poses a risk of rupture or diminishes quality of life.
Sometimes antibiotic treatment can help bring down the size of a spleen though the effect seems to usually be temporary. See the archives for more on this.
If a spleen ruptures that can be fatal, but most do not do that (and some few ferrets have survived it when it has).
An important thing if a spleen gets large enough is that it undermines quality of life quite badly. Imagine carrying around a 40 pound organ weighing you down all day. Imagine having it pressing on the transverse colon so that you had problems with constipation. Imagine it pressing against the stomach so that you had nausea. You get the idea of what can happen if the spleen gets truly huge.
That said, some enlargement with age is very normal to ferrets and is not anything to worry about.
So, there is big but there is also BIG, and your vet can best make the call as too when it is too large.
If the spleen has to come out then know that they tend to do well without their spleens. We have found, though, that if a spleen gets really huge that they feel so good without the extra load to carry around that they are at risk of overdoing their activity in those first critical 10 days or so after surgery, so you may need meds to keep them quiet enough.