Quite awhile ago I wrote in asking for information on why Azrael (4 yr, MF
M) may have been losing hair on his feet and had a very red, dry looking toe
on the rear foot.  He continued to lose hair on his legs, so Dr. Weiss and I
decided to go with an adrenal surgery.
 
Surprise, surprise.  Dr. Weiss went in on Thursday and found two enormous
hair balls in the stomach, 6 tumors on the pancreas, and no problem with the
adrenals.  Back to the drawing board for the hair loss.  Chalking it up to
stress from any number of environmental factors right now.  He had shown no
symptoms of the insulinomia, and had been having diarrhea on and off (sign
of the hairballs), but I had misinterpretted that as stress from the new
ferret in the house and the possibility of contracting a digestive tract
virus from the new ferret.  All wrong.  In short, don't ignore the little
things, even though they don't seem like big problems.  Azrael could have
become very sick, and it was just a twist of fate that I scheduled the
surgery when I did.  True adrenal problems could have waited a little longer.
 
He is recovering fantastically from the surgery.  Can't keep him in bed, and
he's been hungry since he woke up.  The tumors will come back eventually,
and then we'll start on prednisone.  And he will be getting a lot more
laxatone.  It's a good thing he likes it.
 
I'll post again about the hair loss.  I'm hoping to see it growing back in
soon!
 
Lorali J Barber
Production Editor
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
9650 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20814-3998
301-530-7038
Fax 301-571-8303
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http://www.faseb.org/ajcn
[Posted in FML issue 1910]