From:
"Cathy Ryan"
Date: 2009-02-21 21:13:53 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] air in stomach after insulinoma surgery
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
This question is directed to the vets on the board, although I would
be interested to hear if any others have shared this experience. Dec.
29th I took my 6 yr. 2 mo. old Smokey Bear to see Doc for his
scheduled insulinoma surgery. He had been in good health always, but
was starting to show clinical signs of insulinoma. We had decided to
try surgery, we both felt he was a very good surgical candidate. Doc
explained that he had found three tumors, one on each end of the
pancreas and one near the duodenum. He felt surgery went well and
wanted me to know that there was some bruising around the duodenum
from moving parts around to get to the work at hand, but not a major
concern of his. He closed Smokey up and eventually added a wrap due
to the surface oozing after he was out of surgery. Later in the
afternoon he observed that Smokey seemed less enthusiastic and was
concerned he might have a bleeder inside instead of the surface
oozing and needed to open him up and see what was going on. Later
that night he did just that and found that the bruising near the
duodenum had gone down, but his stomach had filled with air -
something he had never seen in a ferret insulinoma surgery. He
aspirated it and closed him back up confident things would be
better. Unfortunately things played out the same and Smoke's belly
filled with air again. This apparently causes a blockage - he was
found dead during morning rounds.
It has taken me some time to handle asking this - I have great
respect for this vet. I thought some of you might help us understand
this occurrence. Have any of you experienced such an event during an
insulinoma surgery or have thoughts related to this occurence? It
apparently does occurr in hairball surgeries.
The following Day I had to say good-bye to my Little Feet as well, 8
yr 2 mos. I know their spirits passed together. Today I got a letter
from Cornell University Veterinary School. My vet and his partner had
made a memorial gift to the school to advance research and education
in honor of Smokey and Little Feet. I called them my ambassador
bears. Now they are still working to help others even after leaving
us. How cool is that?
Appreciate any steps toward understanding, Cathy
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