To Arthur concerning Guy's surgery -
 
        Art, it sounds like he got a pretty good going over.  I would have liked
the vet to take a better look at the adrenals, but the pancreas was the most
important point to look at, as I recall.
 
        Older ferrets may have many lumps on their pancreas, and most of them
are usually not islet cell tumors.  The part of the pancreas that produces
degestive enzymes (the exocrine part), will also tend to get knotty as a ferret
ages.  Often it can be difficult to decide which are the islet cell tumors and
which aren't.  My guidelines are that if it is discolored from the surrounding
tissue in any way, or is very well demarcated (most of the ICT's to my eye, look
like small BB's), then it comes out.
 
        Ferrets can do well without spleens.  We don't know what makes 90% of
them get big - but a ferret with a very large spleen can rupture it, and do
himself a lot of damage.  I generally recommend if the spllen is that large,
that it come out.
 
        I would be interested in seeing what Guy's blood glucose levels look
like in a week or so.  Unfortunately, he will have to be off of the prednisone
for a couple of weeks.
 
Keep us posted...
 
 
To Carl Baewer concerning articles:
 
        That's terrific what you are doing for non-Internet BBS'sers.  I was one
of those unitl fairly recently.  In addition to my other many labors, I run a
sub that is present on about 70 boards across the country called "The Pet
Doctor's In".  Most of the boards are WWIV, but I think there are many others
mixed in.
 
        Concerning my articles, at the moment you have the lot of them.  AS I
get time, or inspiration (the latter is in much greater supply than the former)
I will turn out some more.  Thanks for the email.
 
 
Bruce Williams, DVM
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[Posted in FML issue 0687]