Hi, Barb,
 
I am so very sorry about your loss.  My heart goes out to you.  I'm sure
you gave Wiggles the best life a ferret could have, so please take
consolation in that.
 
I am posting this on FML because of your reaction to the tragedy you have
just lived through.  "No more second adrenal surgeries" is not the right
answer.  In many, many cases, the second surgery will greatly prolong the
life of the ferret, and also improve the quality of life.
 
Whenever a ferret goes into surgery, there is a real risk that what
happened to Wiggles can happen.  That applies to any surgery, any time you
place any animal (including people) under anesthesia.  I don't think you
can blame Dr. Weiss, no can you attribute this to a second adrenal surgery.
It could have happened with the first one, too.  I know that doesn't lessen
your loss at all, but I really want to make sure that you aren't advising
people in a way that might harm their ferrets.
 
Pertwee came home yesterday from his second adrenal surgery with Dr. Dan
Hudson.  The tumor, which wasn't there or was too small to be noticed
just five weeks ago when his left adrenal gland was removed, was very,
very large, so waiting long just wasn't an option for us.  In addition,
Pertwee's previous tumor was a malignant carcinoma, and did penetrate the
capsule of the adrenal gland, so there was a real concern about the cancer
not being given an opportunity to spread.  In other words, not doing this
surgery may have killed Pertwee.
 
Last night, when I was transferring some of Pertwee's stuff from the travel
cage to the recovery cage, he jumped out and ran off.  Just hours after
this surgery he led us on a merry chase, so obviously he was feeling pretty
good.  We then gave him his prednisone and flourocortisone dosages for the
day, and offered him some of Bob Church's wonderful chicken gravy.  He
slurped and gobbled up the gravy hungrily, so he obviously was feeling
pretty good.
 
Every ferret is different.  They all react differently.  I am so sorry that
things didn't work out for Wiggles, but that does *not* mean that a second
adrenal surgery is necessarily a bad idea.
 
Regards,
Caity Martin
[Posted in FML issue 3071]