Hi. I'm really upset and need to get things off my chest. Maybe some of you remember me writing awhile ago about my friends ferret Rocky. He was losing alot of hairand I was upset that he had adrenal cancer. We took him to noe vet and he said because of the time of year, that he suspected allergy to fleas(he did have many) So my friend took care of the fleas. Rocky still lost hair. Went to another vet and she confirmed that he had adrenal cancer but also said that she felt something else during the examination. She did blood tests(removing one-third of his blood supply) on tuesday. Said he was anemic, yet still schedualed surgery for thursday even though he was very listless. The blood work showed anemia, low blood sugar, low white blood cell count and low red blood cell count all of which indicated numerous problems. Still surgery was performed. The vet removed parts of the right adrenal, pancreas, liver, spleen, kidney intestinal growths and a lymph node. Needless to say this poor ferret was really weak. The vet said this was normal. The next day she went in to see him and the vet said he could go home but since he hadn't ate a thing in 2 days she would have to wait for that and also a glucose test. The office started to get very busy and an assistant came out and said to take rocky home eventhough he didn't eat or have the test done. Well my friend was up all night forcefeeding this poor ferret and trying to get water into him. He had excessive diarreh(sp?) She called the office and they said just to continue with what she was doing stating that this was normal and that she had never worked on a ferret this sick before. The next day Rocky was still the same so she rushed him back to the vet. She was given papers on adrenal, and pancreas cancer and also lymphoma and they kept Rocky overnite for observation. When my friend got home she read all the papers and was shocked. First of all she was never given any choice about the surgery. She was told he had to have it right away eventhough he was so weak. In the papers it stated that since the tumor was on the right side there should have been discussion about surgery or not because of the risk. There was no discussion. Because of the insulinoma disease it is a terminal disease and that even early aggressive surgical intervention will not cure a ferret with this and that there is no medical treatment at present to stop the disease progression. All this was given to her after the surgery was performed. Well the next morning she got the phone call. Rocky had died. To me this was all unnecessary and all it did was put my friend and poor Rocky through alot of pain and sorrow. Now my friend is feeling so guilty that she gave the ok for surgery but as I told her, she just listened to everyone and didn't read all the information until after the surgery. Rocky only had hairloss and no other symptoms when she first brought him there. Since he had soooo many things wrong with him she could have just kept him home and made his last days confortable for him instead of putting him through all that pain and stress. Thank you all for bearing with me with this long story, but I wanted people with their loving fuzzies to beware and get as much information before going right to surgery. It might be better to keep them home and give as much love as possible and that would be the medication that your ferret needs the most. I know I am. My little pookie was just diagnosed with adrenal cancer and insulima disease and with the support of my vet we're going the medication route instead of surgery. Her last days will be filled with love and joy instead of heartache and pain. Thank you for listening. Joanie, coco, krispie, bubba and most of all pookie [Posted in FML issue 1827]