This is from Dr. Deborah Kemmerer who also has the website http://members.atlantic.net/~weah/ferrets.html . I am asking her for cross-posting permission to the FHL, since she is author and thus has copyright on this letter, so if i get it it will then appear there in full. At 1:22 PM -0500 1/24/02, Deborah W. Kemmerer, DVM wrote: You are welcome to post what you like of this on the FML. I actually am not the originator of the ligation surgery. Dr. Leo Gates in San Antonio, TX has probably done many more than I have. The key to survival is that most ferret who have adrenals grown in to the vena cava have already established alternate blood flow through the vertebral veins, because the adrenal has put so much pressure on the vena cava that blood flow is already partially blocked. I have a good set of xrays showing the alternate blood flow with injected dye. It's also important for these ferrets to get hormone supplementation (Florinef) as the sudden withdrawal of the massive amounts of hormone produced by these large tumors can be fatal. I, too, was having low survival rates until I started supplementation immediately post-op. Now my survival rate is about 90%. I will have a video out pretty soon. We're actually shooting two videos concurrently. The first one will be basic techniques such as blood collection, bone marrow biopsy, iv cath installation, urinary cath installation, and humane euthanasia. It should be available in March sometime. The second video will include my right adrenalectomy technique. We hope to have that out by the fall. Hope that's helpful. Dr. K. [Posted in FML issue 3673]