From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2007-09-05 18:24:35 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Prophlactic Lupron treatment?
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
I want to publicly thank Dr. Johnson-Delaney for sending so much well
organized
information with so much to learn. That was a great kindness on her
part which
not only teaches but also gives things for which to look forward.
Providing so
much information had to have taken a good deal of time on her part
and been hard
to fit into her schedule.
That is one of the amazing things about the FHL; we have been so
fortunate in
having such wonderful vets teaching us through the years. Some may send
periodic long papers to think about while other human treasures like
Dr. Murray,
Dr. Williams,
Dr. Heller,
Dr. Liszewski,
Dr. Maurice,
and dear, sweet others who write to FHL members privately or who
choose to
speak out publicly less often jump in repeatedly when someone
expresses a
need and save so many ferrets by doing that. All help us learn and
illustrate
for us that KNOWLEDGE IS ALWAYS IN FLUX, and even that what works best
may vary with location or other factors! Caring for ferrets is not
cookie cutter
medicine!
Many thanks to all of those vets for the many ferrets they help save
and the people
whose worries they heal. Thank you so very much from the bottom of
my heart.
Dr. Johnson-Delaney gave me a lot to think about, but some of what
currently exists
is also not persuasive for me at this point in the research. THAT
COULD CHANGE
WITH MORE DATA. Different people may respond differently. I have
expressed
these concerns to Dr. Johnson who understands and like all of us is
looking forward
to finding what further research shows.
Three things that don't work for me at this point:
I just don't personally consider 5-7 to be the normal lifespan. The
only ones we have
had die below 7 had run into things like lymphoma clumps. I know
they can die that
young just as humans can die in their 50s but I also know that humans
who die in their
50s typically have special circumstances (like Mom's chain smoking
which took her
terribly at 53). Most of our ferrets have lived into their 7th or
8th years.
Providing darkness HAS seemed to work well for us though certainly
not perfectly, and
that includes during the years when all of our ferrets had necropsies
and usually
pathology since our vet was helping others learn ferrets that way.
Still it has worked
well enough that we have seen a difference when darkness hasn't been
provided.
(Yes, I have heard from a researcher -- Dr. Judi Bell in a pers. com.
-- that even
darkness doesn't work to stop reproductive cycles after a while in
whole ferrets. My
impression has been that refraction to ingested melatonin happens
more easily,
followed by that to implants, with the body's own being effective
longest, but the
conditions differed so much that I don't know if the comparison holds
water.) Yes,
I know I may just be being stubborn in relation to this and that I
have more to read.
We also have usually tended to avoid ferrets with neural crest
variant markings,
though currently we do have ones with such markings. That could
possible affect
things. We are also 2 years from when I could finally get around
well enough again
for our current ferrets to have enough darkness. When I was in
braces that wasn't
possible. The last time I could not provide as much access to
darkness at any time
of day for an extended period we encountered a clump of adrenal
disease 2 to 3
years afterwards. We now do have one with adrenal disease. Still, I
know this
home sample is too small to be more than a possible hint (or not a
possible hint).
The animals in the prevention study are still mostly only in their
third year. In 26
years with ferrets we have only had one ferret with an adrenal tumor
that young.
After surgery she lived for 5 and a half years more. What will
interest me
STRONGLY will be when the study has the bulk of the animals over 5
years of
age. It will also be interesting to see if and how the results may
differ at different
latitudes.
So, I am willing to be convinced, but at this point there isn't
enough data to
convince me. I think I'll stick to preferring surgeries for now. Of
course, we have
an additional consideration; I can't drive due to neural damage
affecting some uses
of my hands and feet, and the vet is about an hour away for each leg
of the drive,
so while we make regular trips when needed they are a real imposition
upon life's
other demands, especially for Steve. We also are at a more southern
latitude
(North Central NJ) than Seattle.
There are so many more things I want to make the time to look up and
learn about
now; I hope that I get the time and access to do so.
We have the answer to the original questions now: somehow the
communication of
information got it muddled along the way, as can happen with a game
of telephone.
I suspect that I may have figured out why the final result came out
sounding like only
one shot was needed (the first one). I think that could be a
variation on the
emphasis that in Seattle only one shot PER YEAR, given at a critical
time and begun
at a critical age, is the approach under study. Dr. Johnson-Delaney
does carefully
point out that these factors might differ at other latitudes so for
them more shots may
be needed to have an effect in more southern regions than where she
is located.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
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