From:
d6n6b6@yahoo.co.uk
Date: 2005-09-07 18:33:46 UTC
Subject: RE: adrenal disease and renal cyst - What to do? (vets? ppl with experience?)
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <12376621.1126119695942.JavaMail.nobody@vanadium.smartgroups.com>
Hi all,
Too bad, no one has answered, but I thought I'd let you know that we have decided
to go for surgery...
I hope this will prove to be the right decision! I am a bit anxious though, since she's
7 years old, and other vets (ferret vets) in Europe don't do this kind of surgery
anymore at this age...
So I was wondering until what age you frequently do adrenal surgery in the US?
(the surgery will be done by a specialised surgeon, and the anesthesia will be
conducted by a specialised anesthesist btw)
As a side note: She did fine a month ago, on domitor + ketamine, while her PCV
turned out to be 17% at that time. So I hope there's a fair chance that she'll do fine
on isoflurane too, with a PCV of 39%... And with her heart being fine on the
ultrasound...
I really think this is the right decision, since she seems to be a good surgical
candidate, apart from her age, and lupron doesn't always seem to stop the tumor
growth. But I'm still quite nervous about it... Is there anyone out there to reassure
me, that we've made the right decision?
Regards,
Wendy
Author wrote:
> Yesterday, one of my ferrets has been diagnosed with adrenal disease and a renal
cyst. The diagnose has been made through ultrasound and bloodwork:
> Ultrasound:
> -Left adrenal enlarged + odd shape
> -Right adrenal normal shape, just barely within normal size ranges
> -Right kidney: cyst
> She's 7 years old, and about a month ago she had a routine bloodwork done(while
anesthetized for a dental cleaning). This bloodwork showed anemia (PCV of 17%),
increased BUN (81,6mg/dl) and increased Total Protein (7,1g/dl). Everything else
was normal (except perhaps maybe AST, according to some references also slightly
increased: 110U/l)
> I was thinking about adrenal disease back then already (I'm a vet student), since
her coat wasn't spectacularly good back then, and because of the anemia I was
thinking about estrogens being produced by the adrenal(s). Her vulva was not
enlarged though, and my vet thought she only needed some extra vitamins and
minerals, because she was getting old and maybe not resorbing things as well as
she should have. We agreed to try with a multivitamin/mineral complex, and
decided to do another bloodwork 2 months later.
> But since I didn't see her improve, and maybe even become slightly worse, I took
her to the clinic at my own university last week. Blood work was done again, and
this were the results:
> -Hemoglobin 11,4 g/dl TOO LOW (but not as low as a month ago)
> -PCV 39,0% slightly TOO LOW according to some references, normal
accoring to others)
> -erythrocytes 6,72 10^12/l (slightly?) TOO LOW
> MCV 58,1 fl
> MCH 16,9pg
> MCHC 29,1g/dl
> RDW 13,1%
> -WBC 3,2 10^9/l normal
> -neuthrophils 0,0% (these are the ones with the non-segemented
nucleus, I don't know how to translate it)
> -neutrophils (segmented) 60,7% TOO HIGH according to some??
> -lymphocytes 33,7%
> -Monocytes 2,1%
> -Basophils 0,2%
> -Eosinophils 3,3%
> -Morphology RBC/WBC/PLT normal
> (the different WBC's are also listed in 10^6/l and /cmm instead of as%, if you need
to see those also, please ask)
> -Reticulocytes 2,5%
> -Sodium 151mEq/l
> -Potassium 4,8mEq/l
> -Chloride 116mEq/l
> -BUN 106mg/dl definitely TOO HIGH
> -Tot. Protein 6,0g/dl or 60g/l normal this time, although on the high side
> -Albumin 2,64g/dl or 26,4g/l normal or TOO LOW???
> -AST/GOT 145U/L TOO HIGH
> -ALT/GPT 118U/L
> -Gamma-GT 7U/L
> -ALK PHOS 29U/L normal but on the high side
> -Glucose 68mg/dl normal according to the refs, but maybe TOO LOW
according to me... ?? She doesn't have symptoms though, she fasted for 4 hours
before the bloodwork was done)
> Estradiol 920pmol/l or 250pg/ml DEFINITELY MUCH TOO HIGH
> The last one led us back to the adrenals again, and the ultrasound proved they
were posing a problem indeed.
> MY QUESTIONS:
> -What do you think about the above bloodwork?
> -What about the neutrophils, the albumin and the fasting glucose?
> -Could the BUN be caused by the renal cyst?
> -What can we do to treat the renal cyst/support the kidneys? (if treatment is to be
done at all).
> I have an appointment with my professors to talk about what we're gonna do on
Monday, but I'd like to be prepared. We'll probably give her Lupron or a Deslorelin
implant for the adrenal disease, since surgery is more or less out of the question
because of her age. But they didn't seem to be inclined to do something about the
BUN or about the renal cyst. What would vets on this list do, or what are other
people's experiences?
> And would Essiac and/or Pycnogenol be beneficial to her?
> Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post!
> Wendy
[Moderator's Note: the combination is an unusual one, but hopefully someone here
will have some info to send now, but just was too busy with the recent tragedies to
notice your original post, Wendy.]