The surgeries went well. Ferris surprised us with a 3rd adrenal. Last
year the left was removed, the right was where it was suppose to be and
there was a 3rd in between the two leading off the vena cava. Of course
he's back to his normal obnoxious self, being a bully. I'll be glad when
those hormones settle down! Oh, Larry removed 2 insulinomas as well.
Ferris never has shown symptoms of insulinoma. In fact, for a 6 yr old
he is very energetic.
Scribbles spleen weighed in at 198 grams. Human spleen weighs 200 grams.
Trying to get the spleen out was interesting, small incision vs large
spleen. He also had one insulinoma removed. Gads, how they can be seen
is beyond me, so tiny.
Snoopy had his left adrenal removed and is still walking very gingerly. He
walked under a cage door and promptly fell over on his side. He was just
walking along and plop, over on his side he goes. Obviously a bit tender
still.
All were kept in the bathroom for 54 hours following surgery. Saturday
evening I removed the plexi-glass so they could wander out when they felt
like it. In two seconds Ferris was out the door and headed down to the
basement, taking the steps gingerly. Upon finishing his basement
inspection he came back upstairs and went out to inspect the enclosure.
When he was assured that all was well he headed back downstairs to cuddle
up with the group down there.
Scribble didn't come out till much later. When he did he curled up on his
back in a circle on the living room rug between a cage and a carpeted cat
cabin. He slept quite soundly for the night but seems alert and more
comfortable than before the surgery.
Snoopy is still walking gingerly.
All boys still have adrenals that may need removed in the future. With the
spleen removal on Scribble we decided not to keep him under any longer.
With the third adrenal found on Ferris we hoped that it was the trouble
maker and not the regular right. On all three, the adrenals that were left
were not terribly enlarged so we felt comfortable not removing them at this
time.
I had bloodwork run on Pumkin as he had been less active than normal. His
readings that were off were -
ALB - 2.33 g/dl (normal 2.60-3.80)
TBIL - 0.00 mg/dl (normal 0.10-1.00) Larry said 0 is good.
GLOB - 4.48 g/dl (normal 1.80-3.10)
K (Potassium) - 3.06 mmol/l (normal 4.60-7.60)
Cl (Chloride) - 132.9 mmol/l (normal 106.0-125.0)
The ALB + Glob = total protein (tp) and his was 6.82 (normal 5.20-7.30)
We had Bubba with us and I decided to run blood work on him too. He is
doing fine but look at this -
ALB - 2.48
ALT - 71 U/L (normal 82-289)
TBIL - 0
GLOB - 4.11
K (Potassium) - 2.67
Cl - 134.7
Notice the low and high readings are very close. Both have low potassium
and low ALB. Both have normal total protein. Both have elevated
globulin.
I've been doing a bit of data research and I've found that low potassium
can cause vomiting and diarrhea, which we have in our group,
intermittently. Long term infection can cause low potassium and low ALB
and low potassium. Neither boys had diarrhea or vomiting that I had
bloodwork done on. Oh, CFIDS can cause low potassium as well. CFIDS is
believed to be caused by a virus.
I've added a bit of potassium to the recipe (too much can cause cardiac
arrest) and will be adding amino acids as well. Antioxidents, Schizandra
berry, amino acids and pycnogenol were suggested as natural treatments for
CFIDS so they will be added as well.
Interestingly, we've been having a bout of diarrhea and vomiting in some
of the group so I added pepto, amoxi, vit c, pycnogenol, and 1 potassium
capsule to the recipe and in one day the stools are back to normal.
So what are we dealing with? Any ideas? Suggestions for diagnoses?
(stool samples are clean)
Hugs to all. tle
Troy Lynn Eckart
Ferret Family Services
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~sprite/ffs.html
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Haven/5481/
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[Posted in FML issue 3342]
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