From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2007-10-26 21:18:19 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] post surgical seroma
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Whizbang had a left adrenal tumor -- which visually looks like either
an adenoma (benign endocrinological tumor) or possibly carcinoma
(malignant but when they are in an adrenal they rarely metastasize).
Our vets have upgraded the hospital and do another blood test just
before surgery. This time that was very fortunate; she had very
early insulinoma. Whiz did not show any sign of insulinoma and her
non-fasting tests were fine but with a 5 and half hour plus fast she
DID show low glucose. There was just one little insulinoma that
showed up, with careful feeling and operating scope, so she had a
partial pancreatomy. We have had some ferrets who had early surgery
be curative so that is of course the hope. It will depend on if the
triggering situation -- whatever the heck it might be -- started
others that are still to small to be found.
A skin growth which behaves like mast cell tumor is also removed and
all going for pathology, of course.
Steve and I slept in shifts so that she could be sure to eat small
meals every 2 hours so I was up to about 4 a.m. last night.
She has a post-surgical seroma so we are watching that and she might
need to have it looked at tomorrow. It is draining, though. (A
seroma is a collection of serum, in her case perhaps in response to
her stitches.) Her's is about an inch in diameter and goes up and
down depending on if she is seeping again.
The seroma is new to us, and i see only one mention in the FHL
archives in relation to them so I wanted to mention that in case
anyone else encounters one. They are not a problem, but it does pay
to make sure that something else is not going on. (Yes, even after
over a quarter century with ferrets new things arise.)
Whizzie is not fussing with her incision, so that is not the cause.
She is reverting to baby talk, but when she sees that she is
getting a food she likes she begins to laugh that breathy little
ferret pleasure "Heh, heh, heh". Silly Whizbang.
Normally, we have a very low rate of either endocrinological problem
here, about 30% to a third with adrenal growths of any type, about
20% with pancreatic growths of any type, and almost all have been
over the age of five.
The last time we had a clump of adrenal growths was a long time back,
and was no earlier than about 2 years and no later than something
approximating 3 years (maybe no later than 4 years) after a time when
my health made it impossible for us to always provide places where
they could go for darkness.
So, right now we are hoping that we do not get a clump again because
it is about 2 and a half years since I was once again unable to
provide much ready darkness for an extended timeframe because my
mobility was poor. (Yes, we are hoping that we don't wind up with
others who have problems and are hoping that this is only
coincidence. There are times when one would like a hypothesis to not
have confirmation.)
I have read that many time human neoplasia is thought to actually
begin many years before it shows, but for a long time -- sometimes
decades -- the number of cells are so low that no symptoms arise.
For ferrets there is some work from the Netherlands indicating an
approximate time of 3 years after neutering till adrenal growths in
those who get them but the deviation in the numbers is enormous in
what I have read. There also is some past work in relation to
clumping lymphoma (the suspected triggering virus itself was not
identified) which indicated two to three years between the trigger
and the cases of lymphoma, if I recall right. Yes, I know there are
a great many types of growths, but I am wondering -- not that it
would be useful or anything -- if this just might be a common lead-
time that some take to become established enough to have symptoms in
the case of ferrets. Of course, that is neither here nor there, and
there is no way to know at this point in time...
Sorry about rambling; I am tired.
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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