Well, I hate to come out of lurker mode just to ask for help, but I'm
rather confused about my vet's diagnosis of my ferret Bandit.  You see,
Bandit was diagnosed with an Adrenal tumor a little over a year ago.
Shortly after that she developed a Mast cell tumor.  We had the mast cell
tumor removed (took a while to heal) and then she developed a bladder
infection.  We finally got that almost all cleared up, and I was ready to
set a date for the surgery, but now my vet thinks that it is not the best
option.  She discussed my little girl's history with another vet, and they
think that if she does have the operation, she might have more problems
after it.  They think that the hormones from the Adrenal tumor are
counteracting the cause of the Mast cell tumors and preventing any other
tumors, so if we do have the surgery, she might end up with a whole bunch
of mast cell tumors.  And the vet said that since she's been doing fine
thus far (except for the bladder infections), no surgery would be the best
thing.  Now, I probably messed up/misunderstood some of the above info,
but the basic idea was surgery = more tumors.  Right now, she is on a new
bladder infection antibiotic (just won't go away), and this whole time she
has been on medication (Tagamet tablets and for a few months Tribrissen
oral) but other than that it is really just watch and see.  I'm kinda
bewildered, I just want this all to be over for my baby girl.  Has anyone
else had/heard of a similar case?  I don't mean to second guess my vet, I'm
just confused and frustrated.  From what I've been told, adrenal tumors can
cause many problems, (like causing the pancreas to shut down).  Any help or
advice is greatly appreciated, thank you all in advance.
 
Emily Bandit&Rascal
[Posted in FML issue 3279]