Hi Gang!!  Well, we went to the vet today....though the kids were not too
thrilled about it.  I took in Sammy with possible adrenal tumor, and Sam
with tail trouble.
 
I don't know if I have ever 'profiled' Sammy for you yet, so I will brief
you on the history that I am aware of.  I picked her up from a lady who had
'rescued' this ferret from her roomate who wasn't taking care of her well at
all.  It seems that somewhere back down the road she was diagnosed by an
'unknown' vet as having diabetes...his/her remedy for that was Science Diet
*canned* catfood, with Ferretone on top.  Could someone please explain how
this could possible help diabetes??  (retorical question folks) Protein
content is only about 11.5 percent, and fat content is only 5.5 percent
(pretty lousy for a ferret), and she was getting so much Ferretone I was
afraid of Vitamin A overdose.  She appeared in good health as far as her
coat and other things, the only problem was a severely swollen vulva, though
*no* hair loss on the tail.  She is supposed to be 3 years old.  Her
previous owner could not seem to remember to go and get her 'special food'
so ususally she got just any old thing that was grabbed up at the grocery
store.  The lady who finally called me was very concerned about the fact
that Sammy wasn't getting the diet "prescribed for her diabetes", so she
intervened and 'took the ferret away' from the roomate.  No one realized she
had signs of adrenal tumor.  By the way, the lady who 'rescued' Sammy, still
checks with me regularly to see how she is doing and keep up with what is
going on with her medically, she is very worried about Sammy.  She is
telling everyone she can about my rescue work, and she eventually wants to
get set up to do horse rescues....restores my faith somewhat in the
two-legged critters (I mean humans here folks).  Sorry if this post sounds
silly, I didn't get much sleep last night.
 
I called *my* vet, he said first thing is to get Sammy built up on a good
food for four to six weeks then we would consider the surgery.  With no hair
loss the vet suspected some leftover ovarian tissue.  Oh, forgot to say she
is a MF ferret.  He wanted to do hormone therapy first, meaning an injection
(which threw her into serious PMS) and see what happened.  He found nothing
to indicate diabetes and said it is a very rare condition in ferrets.  Three
weeks later we did another injection.  These injections did not
significantly reduce swelling of the vulva as it should have if there were
remaining ovarian tissue, so we figured it was a probable adrenal tumor.  I
was really scared because I had no way of knowing how long she had had the
signs before I got her.  So I chewed my nails while an ultrasound was done
today, and finally we got the results....
 
Vet says **nothing** visible from the scan, so this means the adrenal tumor
is so tiny at this point that if he attempted surgery that all he would see
when he got in there would be two apparently very healthy adrenal glands
with no idea which one to remove.  (Of course, there is no way he would open
her up...until an ultrasound shows clear evidence of an adrenal tumor, and
which gland is affected.) So he recommended that we wait three months and do
another ultrasound.  Otherwise, everything inside looks good!  So finally,
for the first time....I have a chance to catch an adrenal tumor *early*.
This news today was very surprising to me because her vulva is the largest I
have ever seen.
 
So we are having a celebration tonight with Sammy as the guest of
honor...Ferretone and Hairball Medicine all around (shhh...they think the
Hairball Med.  is a grand treat, please don't tell them "it is good for
them").  I will try to post again and describe her PMS, it was pretty funny.
 
As for Sam, he has had very slow hairloss on his tail for some time now.  It
seems sore because he doesn't like for you to mess with it at all.  It is
sort of speckled and discolored.  So off to see the vet we went.  Vet said
appears to be heavy sebaceous secretions, probably caused by an infection.
I have not heard of this before, but ferrets are full of surprises in many
ways.  So our course of treatment is Amoxicillin.  I have yet to see adrenal
disease in a male ferret so I had feared that was a possibility, but am very
relieved to know that adrenal problems are very doubtful for Sam.
 
In case you forgotten, Sam is a rescue from Las Vegas.  He wandered into a
garage and someone who happened to be on vacation there from my area brought
him back then decided he did not have enough time to devote to Sam, the guy
really liked him though, cried when I took him away, and had gone out the
day before and got Sam's vaccinations.  I thought that was pretty neat, not
many care that much for an animal they are giving up.  Sam is a very social
ferret with people, does well with children, and is just a big lap ferret,
but he hates anything on four legs and has tried to *kill* ferrets here any
chance he gets.  If I had a 'sponsor' for him, I would be really tempted to
keep him as a shelter ambassador, he is absolutely the *best* ferret to use
in meeting people and letting them see how gentle and sweet ferrets really
can be.  We need all the good PR we can get!!!!
 
White Fang is in the hand of Margaret in Houston at this time undergoing
evaluation and health checks.  We haven't given up hope of socializing her
with other ferrets.  Margaret has a houseful and is trying different
personalities to see if perhaps White Fang will adjust to life with other
ferrets eventually.  I think White Fang has more miles on her than I do!!
That girl has been just about everywhere.  Just think of the stories she
could tell.  You know, they taught the chimp Nim to sign (that is use sign
language) for what he wanted to say, and White Fang has already been taught
to "understand" the signing motions for No and Down, and she is incredibly
smart.....one day perhaps she will learn to sign too, and then she can tell
us all about her travels.
 
Hmm, this is getting wierd even for me, must be time for bed....nite folks.
 
Kisses to all the fuzzies.
 
Trish
[Posted in FML issue 1669]