Hey everyone!
 
Two weeks ago, I wrote in asking for advice about my ferret Snowball, who
was going in for adrenal surgery.  Our first surgery in five years of
ferret ownership.  (I was pretty nervous).  Well, here's an update!
 
She had her surgery on Monday.  From what I understand, they freeze the
adrenal gland to stop it from working.  Dr. Koffman discovered that
Snowball has an abnormality.  One of the ventricles from her heart wraps
around the adrenal gland.  Now it's nothing life threatening, but it made
her uncomfortable with freezing the entire gland, in fear that if there
was the slightest slip, it could freeze part of her heart, killing her
instantly.  As a result, only 2/3rds of the gland were put out of
commission.  She equated it with a sponge.  If you cut 2/3rds off a
sponge, it would still work, but it would only work 1/3 as well.  She
said that two years ago, when vets cut the adrenal gland out, they were
only able to remove 2/3rds .  She said if it didn't work, we'd talk about
what to do from there.
 
So Snowball came home on Wednesday.  Boy, were her brother and sister
happy to see her.  Baby suddenly developed a fascination for licking poor
Snowball's ears.  Sympathy?  Besides that, they acted perfectly normal
towards each other.  She was only able to play for about 10 minutes at a
time.  She was out of whack and off-balance (from the drugs?) until about
Friday.
 
On Sunday, we put her back into her home with the other two.
 
Yesterday, I brought her in for a follow-up visit.  The vet said she looks
GREAT!  The texture of her coat has changed tremendously.  It went from
feeling like under conditioned, brittle hair to soft and furry again.
And under the fluorescent lights, we could see hundreds of little hairs
sprouting through!!!!  YAY!  I'm praying to Saint Jude like crazy that
all is well.  He's never let me down yet.
 
Well, thanks to everyone who wrote with advice.  I learned some great
tips, that helped a lot!  It's nice to know that there is such a place as
FML where the clueless (me) can get support through hard times.  Thanks
everyone!
 
Love,
Julie & Her Bubbas
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Park/2037/BubbaLand.html
[Posted in FML issue 3667]