Hi, everyone,
I'm way behind on FML, so forgive me for responding to something that's a
couple of weeks old already.
There were some ferret medical facts posted, some by, and some attributed
to Dr. Bruce Williams. These posts were fantastic, and full of good
information. One point I would like to make: Dr. Williams is attributed
as saying that renal cysts are "almost always benign". I believe my vet
would agree with that wording, especially the word "almost".
Pertwee, our two year old albino, had a nephrectomy (left kidney removed)
in July. The kidney was polycystic, and caused him tremendous pain. Our
vet described the kidney has a hard little mass at the time of surgery, and
when he cut the membrane (my terminology is probably wrong here) that holds
the kidney, it came squirting out. Pertwee was better and brighter than
before the surgery the very evening of the day the kidney was taken out.
He had never recovered properly from his adrenal surgeries, and once the
nephrectomy was done, the change and the pace of his recovery was just
amazing.
Before his medical problems, Pertwee weighed 1,398 grams (over 3 lbs.). A
week before surgery he bottomed out at 729 grams (1.6 lbs.), and everyone
thought we were losing him. He didn't want to eat, would just lie with his
back arched to avoid the abdominal pain, and was just miserable. Today,
Pertwee's weight, two and a half months later, is approaching 1,100 grams
(2.4 lbs.) and he is still slowly gaining. He is bouncing off walls,
wrestling, playing, and seems to be almost 100% back to normal.
So... "almost always" is correct, but there are rare exceptions. My vet
never expected what he found. He thought that, most likely, the carcinoma
from the adrenal glands had spread to the kidney. The pathology showed
otherwise. He was very surprised and pleased with the outcome, and so
are we.
All the best,
Caity
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Caitlyn M. Martin
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http://www.angelfire.com/nc/caitmartin
Ferrets: http://www.angelfire.com/nc2/fuzzypages
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[Posted in FML issue 3190]
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