Hello - I wanted to poke my nose in to tell the list a bit of good news in
our house.  Edith our beautiful 4 yr old albino girl had her adrenal
surgery.  She came through with flying colors it appears (only been 3 days
now) and the incision is healing nicely.  The Dr. said the left adrenal was
4 times the size of normal but that everything else looked just perfect.
So, boy, are we lucky - a typical adrenal surgery I guess!  (thanks tle for
all of the pre and post surgical advice, thanks to others for sending good
will).  A swollen vulva and very mild fur thinning on her neck was our
tip-off (no rear fur loss and no complete balding).  The swollen vulva
appeared about 2 or 3 weeks before surgery and led to a urinary tract
infection which was treated with antibiotics prior to surgery.  Our big baby
boy, Dino's leg is healing nicely also.  He was at first diagnosed with
femural head necrosis (a problem which involves reduced blood flow in the
hip joint and then the head of the bone on the leg bone doesn't grow quite
right - i know this is a very elementary description).  Then, a fracture was
discovered in a growth plate (he is just a baby) between the femoral head
and the leg femur.  We had several options involving surgery, removal of the
head, installing a pin, or wait & see, etc, etc.  I received advice from bob
church our resident bone expert and many others (thanks rudy, catherine,
tle, dick, vets and many others).  Since he was still at the end of his
growth stage and with the help of lots of different opinions we opted away
from surgery.  We confined him in a small cage (oh how this broke my heart)
for many days only allowing him brief and calm walking.  We tried to carry
him around a whole lot so he would feel involved.  We added one of his
brothers or sisters to his cage, rotating them every few hours so he would
not be lonely.  Well, thank goodness a little 5 week girly albino, June,
came to us in search of a home.  What timing!  She took up as his cagemate
as she was soooooo (and still is) small she thought the cage was a mansion
and she loved it while keeping Dino company!  So, Dino's leg is healing
nicely - we do need to confirm this with an x-ray soon but I am quite sure
we'll see a big improvement in that area.  If not, we can still go with
surgery.  Henry is off of hand feeding.  Henry is our boy who has had some
nervous problems and stomach problems.  He goes on and off hand feeding when
he has his bouts.  He has been very outgoing lately and been feeding himself
just fine.  I think he was so concerned about Edith and so curious about
Dino and June that now that business is back to normal it makes him very
confident!  He has been bouncing around Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing...
Clarence and Zoey, our two "maintenance-free" ferrets who have always been
happy, healthy et al continue to be so.  Clarence is doing his job of
dragging the little June around by her neck.  I think he wishes she would
sleep more because he always drags her back to bed - from which she jumps up
and runs teasing him with her dooks.  Zoey, also, has been especially happy
now that her sheet shark buddy is better.  Her and Dino are back to rolling
around on the bed under the covers.  This makes her very joyful.  Aloysius,
Smudge and Estlin are also good.  Aloysius (cat) had one of his fangs
removed and I was surprised that it hasn't affected his ability to eat much
at all.  His lip kind of sags on one side a little bit - but he does not
seem bothered by it.  During his healing period he actually preferred dry
food over wet food.  I think he could easily keep the dry food over on one
side of his mouth while chewing and the wet food on the other hand got in
the hole where the tooth was and hurt him.  So, that was surprising to me.
Well, anyways, thanks for all of the advice gang.  It is always right on!
with love, charlene and joe (who have about 100 puncture wounds), aloysius,
estlin, edith, clarence, zoey, smudge, henry, dino and june (who is
teething)... along with angel ferrets, Nina and Granny
[Posted in FML issue 1657]