We live in the so-called "wealth belt" where middle class and upper middle
class people live in condos, some upper middle class live in small homes,
and a lot of the populace has a very high income.  Land costs are through
the roof locally, as are property taxes (We have a condo and have about 4X
the property taxes as Steve's parents have on their home and land in Great
Falls.).  Even here, where all costs are higher due to space being so much
more costly, the costs we see for adrenal surgeries run about $450 to $800,
depending on the situation.  The $2,000 quoted makes no sense to us.  Hope
the person saw Sandi's post in the Thursday FML on Drs. Deeb and Tamaka;
thst should really, really help his ferret a LOT!
 
We are among those who have encountered a false positive on an ultrasound
for adrenal problems.  We don't immediately rule out ultrasounds for
special situations but they sure are not our norm for a possible adrenal
growth.  Even the TN panel isn't in our norm IF symptoms are clear or if
it's obvious that they'd have to go in no matter what the cause of
symptoms.  It sure can be useful otherwise, though.
 
BTW, while vet is in ours' always check other accessible things, too, that
are prone to problems -- like looking for uterine stumps, checking for
insulinomae, peeking at the spleen -- well, once doing a lot more than that
when it was so huge that it popped right out of the body cavity on its own
once open so they massaged it to return as much blood as possible and then
just detached it -- which made her much happier and markedly lighter for
her remaining years.
 
>how many ferrets live out healthy and normal lives
 
Most of them, probably.  Certainly, that is the case here.  We tend
toward the standards in markings (rather than fancies) for most of our's,
including rescues of various sorts who wind up here, perhaps because we
have found pretty much better health with them normally, and I guess now
that it's 2001 that means over approximately 19 years or so of experience.
 
Remember that we all can learn from health situations and we boost up each
other so these things get discussed out of proportion, but to the benefit
of all.  On the FML alone there are over 3,000 members.  It's probably
extremely safe to assume an average of 5 ferrets per address since so many
represent shelters with so many more.  The number of health and death
posts don't seem so high when looked at in light of about 15,000 ferrets,
do they?
[Posted in FML issue 3288]