To Michelle: --> He sent the tissue off to be analyzed ($30! I told him about Bruce's service, but forgot to take the address with me - sorry, but we have to go back next week. . .) so hopefully we will hear about that soon, and perhaps it won't be bad. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The address is: Major Bruce Williams Department of Veterinary Pathology Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Washington, DC 20306-6000 (202) 576-2453/54 Also, for anyone who has other pets or vets that are dissatisfied with their service, I also have a small histopathology business on the outside, where I do dogs, cats, and other domestic and exotic species. My price is only $19. For more information about submitting cases, call AccuPath at (301) 299-8041. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -->What happens if they have to remove both adrenal glands? Can they survive well without them? No they can't. Ferrets require at least part of one adrenal gland to live. Now, you can supplement them with prednisone and keep them going for a while, but that generally doesn't work for a long time, due to inevitable dosing problems or client compliance. And as a general rule, when one adrenal gland is removed, the problem stops. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also, the vet thought it was "nuts" to not feed the ferret for 48 hours to prevent them from getting pancreatitis. He said he's never had a case develop due to this in the 50+ surgeries that he's done. They fed her the evening of the surgery. That's fine. I hope he NEVER has any problems. I know that in surgery on all other species, NPO (nothing per os) is the rule. Tom Kawasaki, who has done literally hundreds, maybe over a thousand of these, fasts his patients, and his word is good enough for me and the two ferrets that he has operated on for me over the last year. But if feeding the ferrets after surgery works well in your vet's hands, then he should stick with it. To my knowledge, no one has ever done a retrospective of this type of surgery to see what is the best post-operative procedure, so to each his own, I suppose.... Bruce Williams [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 0613]