>From:    Duane Watts <[log in to unmask]>
>
>Well folks, we are taking Cocoa and Blaze to Ohio for surgery Friday.
>Both are showing classic signs of adrenal.  Cocoa is a sweet little
>chocolate female and Blaze is a rough and tumble Silver.  How old is
>too old for surgery?  These two are elderly but in good shape otherwise.
>I just hope everything goes well.
 
Duane- I'm sure opinions differ on an age- there probably is no one age
for every ferret.  I think it's probably like people- you would decide
on an individual basis, hopefully with guidance from your vet, and take
their overall health into consideration.  I am by no means an expert,
but, just like in humans, there's a risk with every surgery.  Our two
ferrets, both about 5 yrs old, each had major surgery in December- one
for adrenal disease and the other for an enlarged spleen and then it
turned out he also had some cancer and insulinoma.  The vet had to stop
the surgery before he wanted to do (i.e., there were some more masses
he wanted to remove) b/c Freddy had lost a lot of blood already and he
didn't want to endanger him.  They have so little fluids and blood in
them, that I'm sure operating on such a tiny animal is hard.
 
That said, both Freddy and Peanut recovered really well and are back to
their normal- maybe a little more energetic- selves.  They are getting up
there in age, but I would never have made any other decision unless the
vet told me it would put them in jeopardy to operate.  There are people
on the list more knowledgeable than I, but my understanding is that if
you catch adrenal disease early, the best possible chance of recovery
and wellness lies with surgery if your ferret is healthy enough to have
surgery.  Our Peanut's hair started growing back almost immediately-
before the surgery she had lot almost all the hair on her back!  And
both of them healed and recovered from the surgeries pretty quickly.
 
Good luck to you--
 
Jaime
[Posted in FML issue 4149]