Sherman went in for surgery today.
 
As is typical for Sherman (who can be seen playing in a photo from a
few days ago at
http://tingilinde.typepad.com/starstuff/2004/03/good_thoughts_f.html )
nothing is simple.  (The fur loss is partly from his R adrenal tumor,
partly from long-term steroid use for IBD, and partly from shaving for
tests.)
 
History: he has had high blood proteins for about a year and recent
electrophoresis showed two spikes but the pathologists didn't know what
to make of it.  Recently, he also has had high blood calcium.  His x-rays
look okay but the concern that there might be something like early
multiple myeloma is present for now.  He also has IBD of long standing
which had gotten very unresponsive to meds.  We finally found that it
behaved well for steroid shots every 3 weeks but those also caused him to
gain a lot of fat which had to come off before this surgery.  During his
dieting he first had a lot of intestinal bloat which then resolved, and
after a Lupron shot he began losing fat unusually rapidly.  At the same
time he became very playful and extremely active again so hopefully that
accounts for much of that.
 
He did not respond as fully to the Lupron injection (a high level one) as
was expected.
 
Last year he lost his L adrenal.  It had very strange and profuse
vascularization which was close to blowing out.  At that time his R
adrenal was small and well separated from other organs.  (He is our
second ferret in 22 to have a definite early (before a known age of 5
years) adrenal tumor.)
 
Now, the R adrenal was large and invading both liver and Vena Cava.  Our
surgeon did a bang-up job of cleaning it out well though one side of the
Cava needed a hemoclip to be safest.  The liver was very yellow so
biopsies of that were also taken.
 
So, he'll be on Florinef and Pred on his return tomorrow night.  He still
has that recalcitrant IBD.  No one knows why he has high blood calcium
levels and that remains a concern, and no one knows why he has those
blood protein spikes (also a concern).
 
We won't know until the results of his biopsies come back (and for
myeloma until the blood results are understood), but he might be lucky,
or he might have one of several possible malignancies.
 
Could people, please, post experiences with high blood proteins and with
high blood calcium?
[Posted in FML issue 4462]