Now that Beth has posted in public Dr. Weiss' official statement I will
share what I've witnessed.  Dr. Weiss came to me a couple months ago with
the idea of Cryosurgery.  He had been reading how it's being used and
thought there would be a good chance it would work in ferrets.  He
explained it to me and asked if he could use some of the shelter ferrets
for it.  He didn't want to try out a new technique on a personal pet.  At
that time, I had several in various stages of adrenal disease, and of
various ages.  This was a hard decision to make, but was hoping for the
welfare of ferrets everywhere, that it was the right one.
 
When he finally found the equipment to borrow to try it out, he contacted
me and I brought in 3 ferrets.  The first day, with the manufacturer's
technician there, they performed the first surgery.  The ferret was up and
around quicker than normal.  He kept the ferret at the hospital overnight.
The next morning all appeared normal, then the little guy died.  Nothing
inside looked abnormal.  He asked if you could try it again on one more.  I
asked him to perform the surgery on the oldest, most advanced case.  Again,
the little guy was up and around much more quicker than normal.  Dr. Weiss
took him home with him that night, just to be on the safe side.  Everything
appeared to be going well, so he performed the third operation.
 
Since then, I've had atleast 7 cryosurgeries done.  All are up and around
quicker.  Most of these seven have been bilateral.  None have needed any
additional hormones due to both adrenals being frozen.  Hair seems to come
back quicker, I even had to give one girl a hair cut in order to take out
her stitches!  One girl, who was very shy, hardly would come out of her
sack, now bonds out when she hears her name.
 
I've been very pleased with the success.  I'm anxiously awaiting what the
blood tests show.  We took pre and three week post blood.  I hope it proves
as successful as the outward signs are showing.  The little one that died -
I feel very bad about, but it probably was just a fluke.  I don't think Dr.
Weiss has had any deaths since that one.
 
I think Dr. Weiss' idea of the video is excellent and hope that it will
make more vets feel comfortable performing common ferret surgeries.
 
Faith
Ferrets R #1 Shelter & Rescue
[Posted in FML issue 2840]