My number 1 best boy had most of both his adrenal glands out a week ago.
I needed a Friday operating day to be able to spend the weekend with him
following surgery, so it was scheduled way in advance, giving me several
weeks to worry about the outcome.  The week of the surgery I was fortunate
enough to have a co-worker request a shift trade which gave me an extra day
off, so I was home with him for three days.
 
Big waste of my time (worrying) he was fine.  He'd been given Duck Soup
daily the 2 weeks prior to surgery, and we opted for the IV drip during
surgery and the rest of that day, what I considered to be a well spent
extra 84 bucks.  When I picked him up about 7 pm, they wanted to leave
his IV catheter in place in case he crashed during the night and needed
emergency attention.  It was unhooked from the tubing, and wrapped with
stretchy green gauze to his front leg.  Seemed like a good idea at the
time, but I don't believe I'd opt for this in the future.  It made handling
him more difficult, and next morning, on the way out to the vet hospital to
have it removed, he unwrapped it, leaving a glass tube flopping from his
leg!
 
He was really supposed to not have food when he came home the night of the
surgery, but he was being kept in the kitchen - where all the food smells
are.  When I fixed Soup for the other ferrets, he wanted some!  I fed him
several small amounts that night, and when I got up at 4 am to tend to
another ferret, he wanted food then too.  Over the weekend he was allowed
ground ferret food added to Gerber baby chicken, but he wasn't to eat
regular kibble.  There was a water bowl in his 'hospital' cage, which he
regularly spilled, and only flat towels on the cage floor.  No climbing
into hammocks, no clamoring over litter box edges.  Whenever he woke up I'd
take him to a litter pan that is a walk-in style, and he always used it.
Only during the nights was the corner of the cage used as a potty.
 
On Sunday afternoon I returned him to the ferret area so he could be with
Welly, giving them the smallest of the 3 'rooms', and removed anything he
might climb into or through.  They slept in a file tub laid on it's side
with a lot of towels.  He now had access to regular ferret food, but
because he was sleeping a lot and I was frequently offering him small
amounts of Soup, I never saw him accessing the kibble.  By Tuesday morning
when I had to return to work I felt confident he would be fine during the
day.
 
Kouri had a 2.25 inch incision with 11 stitches.  There was not even a
hint of bruising on his bare pink belly, and he healed nicely, with no
swelling or discoloration of the incision.  I applied Calendula drops
to the stitches twice a day, and they came out yesterday, 8 days post
surgery.  Most of the scab came off with the stitches, and I was amazed
at how clean and fully healed he is.  Even before the stitch removal he
was running, jumping, climbing on the file tub, and trying to get me to
play with him.  What a guy!
 
Georgia - the left coast one...
[Posted in FML issue 3368]