From:
"Ardith"
Date: 2008-02-11 18:55:53 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Odd adrenal gland
To: <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>
Hopefully path report will have answers, but for now our question is mostly about the left adrenal gland and the odd blood supply.
Anyone run across this?
Noel, age un-known came in last December from local animal control.
My guess from her thickened nails she was 5 or 6.
She had no hair, thin, obviously adrenal.
A month of observation by myself and our wonderful vet, we decided she had progressed to a good surgical candidate. She was active, gained good weight, always good stools.
Blood work good.
In surgery the vet found a left adrenal tumor being fed by 15 different blood vessels.
Due to the blood loss, she was unable to remove all of it, but did get most, clamped off the vessels, took biops of the spleen and liver that looked funky.
Pancreas looked perfect.
Path report,
adrenal tumor, cortical carcinoma, no clear margins due to not getting it all.
Liver, nodular hyperplasia
Spleen, increased blood flow, probably fed by all the blood vessels in adrenal.
Noel recovered well, no complications, and seemed to thrive for 6 weeks.
Last week she went off food, grinding teeth, diarrhea. Our vet put her on fluids and started ulcer meds on Tuesday. She was syringe fed, kept on fluids/meds with little improvement.
Blood work indicated low protein level, possibly from not eating enough.
Noel remained perky otherwise through Friday.
Sat morning she went rapidly down hill. Her veins collapsed, her body temp was very low, she was not able to lift her head.
Two hours of support brought no response and we let her pass peacefully.
Necropsy showed her intestines literally dissolving, vet said a bit like end stage ECE.
Her stomach/small intestine were full of blood.
Pathology will be back in about a week.
My vet is puzzled, as she has never seen a adrenal gland like this one in over 20 years of ferret practice.
Since we have no past history on the wee one, we don't know if she had ever had ECE or IBD.
My guess is she had not. Anyone that would dump a ferret at AC would not likely have spent money on vet care.
Ardith
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:ferrethealth-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:ferrethealth-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ferrethealth-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/