>... I am very nervous about the use of anesthetics and sedatives that
>would be used with the surgery and blood tests respectively.  I would do
>anything to help him but I am afraid of the risks involved with the use of
>these drugs.  I would like to know how risky they are and what constitutes
>a ferret as 'High Risk'.  Please advise.  .."
 
Dear Tonya:
 
In ferrets, I generally stay away from the use of any injectable
anesthetics, as they can be unpredictable in ferrets and result in
prolonged anesthesia.
 
I generally recommend inhalant anesthesia (gas) such as isoflurane for all
procedures, whether it is a short procedure such as blood drawing, or a
long procedure like an adrenalectomy.  With gas, if the ferret gets too
deep, you can always turn it off, but with an injectable, you can't draw
it back out.  I also generally do not recommend premediciations, as most
of these are also sedatives and can give unpredictable results, or cause
hypothermia - a major cause of death in ferrets during routine surgeries.
For short procedures, masking down with gas, a blood draw, and recovery
usually takes only five minutes.  For abdominal surgeries, I generally
recommend an endotracheal tube, IV fluids (warmed) and careful attention
to warmth to prevent hypothermia.
 
Regarding the level of risk for anesthesia, this generally refers to
concomitant disease.  It is often difficult to assign a category of risk to
an older ferret without a complete workup, but I would immediately classify
ferrets with heart disease, unstable diabetes or systemic neoplasia, like
lymphoma as high risk, animals with stable insulinoma as moderate, and most
animals with adrenal disease as low risk.  This is far from a complete
listing, but an otherwise healthy, 3-year old with adrenal disease probably
represents a low surgical risk in the hands of a competent surgeon.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM
[Posted in FML issue 3219]