From:
mjanke@miamiferret.org
Date: 2005-09-16 21:51:35 UTC
Subject: RE: Panel vs. Surgery
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <4573331.1126907495402.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Author wrote:.
> During the surgery they would have both adrenals looked at, and their pancreas looked at. I assume this is a very good method of seeing whether the ferret has insulinoma and adrenal disease.
Just looking may or may not be revealing. During surgery on Spaz, my very experienced vet could not tell for sure which gland was causing his adrenal symptoms. Both were normal in size, though something about the left gland made him take it out and dissect it on the spot. He saw internal abnormalities, so he knew he took the appropriate gland out. Spaz's symptoms all disappeared, so I'd say he did get it right, but it could have been overlooked too. So, that's one thought on the looking theory.
Insulinoma may have the same results. If there are no surface nodules, that doesn't mean there aren't smaller tumors within the pancreas.
Personally, I'd be somewhat hesitant to jump into surgery OR a tennessee panel just because of tail hair loss. Yes, that can be an early sign of adrenal disease, but I also had two different ferrets that had total rat tail for the last 3 years of their lives and never developed any adrenal symptoms, unless someone wants to call just that an adrenal symptom, which I would not agree with. They both died of unrelated causes past 7 years of age.