Lethargic and not eating after adrenal surgery: in that situation be
sure to check the sodium and potassium levels because the symptoms mesh
up with possibly going Addisonian.  Even when both adrenals haven't come
out cleanly there can be atrophy or sometimes temporary suppression of
the remaining gland or tissue.  There are a few vets who routinely use
Percortin and Pred following an adrenal surgery because of deaths from
Addisons Crises when they would not normally be expected; most expect
immediate feedback with those symptoms and take that problem into
account, but some don't realize that this can happen when tissue remains
because that particular situation is not terribly common..  The meds used
are either Florinef or Percortin and Prednisolone usually.  I have read
of a few who did better with Dex than Pred, and Prednislone tends to be
preferable to Prednisone because a liver processing step is skipped.
(Prednisone is processed into Prednisolone in the liver.)  Some ferrets
don't do the liver processing step well.
 
Know, too, that it is possible to have low potassium elsewhere and not
have the blood levels be as bad.  We have run into that ourselves and
the animals needed their Florinef doses adjusted upward; then they were
active, eating well, and having a grand time soon afterward.
 
Check those electolytes!  Even discuss just trying the meds
post-surgically like some vets do to see what happens.
 
Other things need to be checked for of course, such as dehydration,
unexpected bleeding, post op infection, etc.  and in such cases the
treating vet will respond accordingly.  Except for dehydration I've read
more reports of Addisons than of other problems in recent years, though
bleeding used to be a more commonly mentioned problem before so many
lists of post-op guidelines on ferret lists mentioned restricted activity
and no climbing.  To help avoid internal bleeding keep a ferret quiet
enough after surgery, including no climbing (even ramps) for at least
a week and preferably longer after abdominal surgery.  To help avoid
internal bleeding and infection do not let other ferrets near the
incision for a while and monitor them when together.  Also to help avoid
infection consider post op antibiotics and do not use litter till the
incision is closed: use newspaper or paper towels instead.
 
Brewers Yeast and other chromium sources help reduce blood sugar levels
some, but that leve isn't much of a bump up.  That is why chromium
sources are useful for diabetes but should be avoided with insulinoma.
Garlic promotes bleeding so it is not a great thing to have post-op.
 
Watch to see if she develops strangely located bruising elsewhere.  If
so read up on Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC) in
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
 
Oh, the dental aging stuff: those are approximate ERUPTION ages, which is
why having canines in place as fully erupted teeth is a reliable enough
indicator that is easy for officials to spot to use for telling an 8 week
age.  Of course, other dental info could also be used but some states
have encountered some resistance to getting complicated so replacing the
needlelike canines with fully erupted conical adult canines works better
for acceptance and actual follow-through (which is needed for such
regulations to work).
 
Paw wrote:
>Passing laws and waiting for a kit to be 8 weeks till it is shipped,
>will not make any difference in a badly run pet store, or in a pet
>store where the kits are never held or touched until someone takes
>them home
 
Depends on the law and the follow-through.  For instance, when disease
and lack of follow-through by a pet store can be proven in NJ it is
possible to bring the state down on a store.  I know because we did it
once.  We had a ferret arrive with coccidia, and we didn't even ask the
store to cover the treatment (which we could do under the law).  We
notified them so that they could treat the rest of the vulnerable
animals, but they pointedly said that they would not do so, so with our
vet's permission we notified the state with our vet providing diagnosis
on hospital letterhead stationery.  The pet store was forced to treat and
also the animals had to then go to a different store in the chain after
the state passed them as healthy post-treatment because that individual
store was prohibited from selling live mammals for 6 months.
 
It IS possible to write good laws and to push to get them passed; read
up on the things Alicia of Ferret Wise did getting laws passed in NH in
the FML Archives
http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html
 
Sukie
Need a laugh?  Watch the movies:
http://www.skateboardingbulldog.com/picsandmovies.htm
[Posted in FML issue 4662]