From: Lynn McIntosh [faiml@uswest.net] Sent: Friday, May 12, 2000 12:45 AM To: FAIMLanon; FAIML Cc: faiml@miamiferret.org Subject: FAIML #420; May 11, 2000 Ferret Adrenal/Insulinoma Mailing List (FAIML) #420; May 11, 2000 1. Bandit 2. surgery cancelled (postponed?) for Buttercup 3. Sammy's insulinoma 4. Loss of Ferret - Good bye my Rikkie 5. Misty and Flux 6. Jonesy's Biopsy 7. Tally The FERRET ADRENAL/INSULINOMA MAILING LIST (FAIML) is a group that's come together to share support and information about adrenal and insulinoma diseases. FAIML comes out in digest format three to six times per week, depending on the number of posts sent, and their surgency. FAIML information is the opinion, only, of subscribers, mostly ferret caretakers. It is not medical advice, comes with no guarantee of accuracy, and is not meant to replace the examination and medical oversight of a qualified veterinarian. If your ferret is sick or exhibiting signs of illness take your fur kid to the most ferret- experienced vet you can find! A ferret- experienced vet is one of the most important services you can provide to your ferret. TO POST: Write POST at the end of your subject heading (the more specific you can be in your subject heading, the better) and send to . URGENT POSTS: If you feel the message is urgent please mark it POST URGENT and I'll send it out to subscribers as soon as I can, then include the message in the next list. CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS: Please write POST ANONYMOUS after your subject heading if you don't want your address or last name published. SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE: Just use the one address for posts, subscription questions, requests, cancellations, comments, etc. The list is run by hand so just send me an email. ADRENAL/INSULINOMA WEBSITE: FAIML ARCHIVES/PHOTOS: Past FAIMLs are being archived, with a search feature, on Michael Janke's adrenal/insulinoma web site: . Michael is also kindly posting pictures of FAIML subscribers and the ferrets at this site in the FAIML Album. Check out his site for more info. PAM GREENE's FERRET FAQs: I suggest people read (and reread) Pamela Greene's Disease FAQ's on Insulin and Adrenal diseases, as they offer a good background. I forward them to all new subscribers, and will gladly send them upon request. I also send the "Disease Package", a file that tells how to get all six of Pamela Greene's FAQs on ferret diseases. Pam also has excellent FAQ's about general ferret care as well, and a link to these may be found on the FERRET CENTRAL web site: . THE FERRET MAILING LIST (FML): The FML has 3,000+ ferret-loving subscribers and the topic is simply ferrets, ferrets, and more ferrets. Moderated by Mr. Bill Gruber, it's a great source of ferret entertainment and information. Visit FERRET CENTRAL on the web (see paragraph above) for more info on the FML. To subscribe to the FML, send email to its moderator, Bill Gruber, at and ask to be added. You can also try subscribing automatically by sending email to with the command SUBSCRIBE FERRET in the body of the email. 1. Bandit From: Cjbandit@aol.com Date sent: Sun, 7 May 2000 08:07:38 EDT Hi Everyone, Just wanted to give you the latest on Bandit, HE'S FINE ! I took him to Dr. Weiss last Thursday night for Adrenal/Cryosurgery and it turned out he had tumors in both the right and left adrenal. Pacreas was fine, no sign of insulinoma and the other organs looked good. Oh my God, what a RELIEF it's finally behind me, I dreaded this surgery for so long for fear of loosing him. It may be premature but I feel it's safe to say surgery was definitely this best course of action. I didn't realize how ugly and debilitating Adrenal Disease is. Being that Dr. Weiss removed both adrenals it may be necessary to put him on hormone replacements. I have to bring Bandit to the vet in 30 days to have a blood test to check and see if his body is producing the hormones or not. My only concern is prior to surgery Bandit gave up on his quibble but would eat the duck soup if hand fed. Now not much has changed, his appetite is good when being hand fed and even sometimes licks from the saucer himself if enticed enough but will not eat that dry food even if I moisten it. This makes me nervous because right now I'm home so I can feed him throughout the day but I'll be going back to work soon !!! Anybody been through this and know how to wean them back on quibble? Also he never drinks water from a bowl or water bottle, I don't know what's going on, could it be because he's eating the duck soup he's not thirsty? He definitely urinates enough that doesn't seem to be a problem... Thanx Christina and Bandit P.S.- My thoughts and prayers go to Mike and Shelby 2. surgery cancelled (postponed?) for Buttercup From: "Clare Sebok" Date sent: Tue, 9 May 2000 16:17:08 -0400 (EDT) We cancelled Buttercup's surgery and made an appointment to see Dr. Weiss tomorrow instead. Buttercup is doing so well lately that we just couldn't go through with it. She hardly seems sick at all. We have several questions to discuss with Dr. Weiss, including her estimated life span with and without surgery, the condition of Buttercup's heart and kidneys, her glucose level, risks of lysodren, what dosage schedule he would use, how long the ultrasound results are valid, etc. Our discussion may result in rescheduling surgery or in trying lysodren for a short time with careful monitoring. Thanks very much to everyone who sent us advice. We'll keep you posted. Clare and Bill Buttercup and Bridgett (adrenal ferrets) Bonnie and Charlie (still healthy ferrets) Patrick (Shetland sheepdog) Felix (our newest addition, a 12-year-old cat who belonged to a friend who died) 3. Sammy's insulinoma From: "John Rosloot" Date sent: Mon, 8 May 2000 17:41:46 -0600 (CST) Some of you may recall me posting previously about my ferret Sammy. He was diagnosed with insulinoma about a year ago. His blood glucose at that time was about 65. The first thing we tried was surgery; the vet removed a couple of nodules from Sammy's pancreas last June, but that didn't seem to help Sammy much. Over the past year we started Sammy on Prednisone, occasionally increasing the dosage, as well as adding supplemental duck soup feedings 4 times daily to Sammy's diet. In March and April this year Sammy's attacks were on the rise, and increasing his pred dosage wasn't helping him much. Fasting B.G. would sometimes drop as low as 20. I decided to try surgery again, since Sammy was also losing hair on his tail so we had to check the adrenals anyway. The vet removed Sammy's left adrenal, which was slightly enlarged. He also did a partial pancreatomy this time, removing about 1/3 of Sammy's pancreas at the rear where a number of small nodules were clustered, as well as removing two larger nodules near the middle and front. Two weeks later when Sammy's stitches came out, I was stunned to hear his blood glucose was now 100. Another couple of weeks have gone by since then, and Sammy is doing great. He's completely off prednisone, is no longer getting supplemental feedings, is eating great on his own and is full of life and energy. I never expected such a turn-around. I couldn't be more pleased. :) -- John Rosloot, Caregiver to Cassidy and Sammy With loving memories of my dear departed Buddy Technical analyst, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Regina Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada http://www.cs.uregina.ca/~john/ferrets john@cs.uregina.ca 4. Loss of Ferret - Good bye my Rikkie / Please post From: Rikkie2000@aol.com Date sent: Sun, 7 May 2000 12:35:57 EDT Rikkie finally had to give up the good fight when her heart went into failure. When I purchased her 5+ years ago, the vet told me that she would never live to be a year old. I took her to Cornell University for a second opinion, and was unfortunately told the same news. Although she was a MF ferret, I feel that she slipped through the cracks and was sent out to be sold. MF did refund my money, which I used toward the testing at Cornell. Rikkie was diagnosed with adrenal disease about 3 years ago. Surgery was not an option due to her heart murmur. Last March however something had to be done as she was continuing to go into "heat" and was in a lot of pain. After much discussion with my Vet we decided that he needed to go in and see what was going on. It appeared that she had never been spayed, or done so incompletely. I honestly thought that I would never see her again. To our suprise, she pulled through fine. He did see the tumor, but we did not want to keep her under anesthesia for any longer than necessary. She had lost all of her fur on her tail, and was gradually losing it on her haunches and back, but still had the most beautiful face. I retired in January, so spent every day with her. By this time she was not a "cage ferret". She slept in my bed or in hers under my nightstand. 2 weeks ago she started having breathing problems. These occurred about 3 times a day and lasted from 2 to 3 minutes. The vet had me give her a diuretic which helped her circulation, with her sleeping most of the time, her blood was gathering in her chest cavity and causing her problems. Thursday she could barely walk. And the breathing turned to sporadic little pants. Thursday night she crawled up into bed with us and gave us kisses. She hadn't been getting up in the bed as much as it was difficult for her to climb.... Friday I talked to the vet and decided to let her go across Rainbow Bridge. Her appointment was for Saturday at 9 am. I truly didn't think that she would still be alive Saturday morning. We slept on the living room floor together and said our good byes. The other boys already had said good bye to her with loving kisses. The hardest decision that I have ever had to make was in letting her go the way I did. I keep thinking that there was something else that I should have or could have done. The vet explained that her muscle weakness was due to potassium deletion due to the diuretic. We could try to get her on a iv and hydrate her, but her prognosis was not promising. The thought that I can't get out of my head is her little heart still beating away so strong. Its as if she didn't want to go. Ferret folks are a rare breed. In reading the posts on this page for the last few years it has become apparent to me that the challenge of raising a healthy ferret is so great, and the lengths that we go to - - to comfort and help our kids is extraordinary, perhaps that is why the loss is so incredibly heart breaking. Thanks to all for your support and Bless you and your fur babies. Becky, Rikkie,Jerry Canary, Diasy head Maisy, Peekie, Jessie, Pookie, Peewee 5. Misty and Flux From: teckart@oznet.ksu.edu Date sent: Tue, 9 May 2000 13:27:01 -0500 Misty and Flux were both left adrenals. :-) Misty is back up and running around but Flux is taking a bit longer to recover. He's eating and walking around but looks like he hurts. He walks rather gingerly. So now we are back down to no operable adrenal kids.... at least today. Hugs to all. tle Troy Lynn Eckart Ferret Family Services http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~sprite/ffs.html http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Haven/5481/ Please sign up to support our charity http://www.iGive.com/html/ssi.cfm?cid=46&mid=58395 6. Jonesy's Biopsy From: "Sue Stout" Date sent: Tue, 9 May 2000 18:38:11 -0500 Hi, Just wanted everyone to know that we got the biopsy back on the growth on Jonesy's foot. Non Cancerous! They think that he had an injury to his foot that caused a blood vessel to break. This in turn caused a lymphatic reaction (thus the growth). He is doing well, and the 3 little stitches come out this Thursday. He is doing well and I have relaxed. My son thought he had broken his leg the other day...poor Jonesy couldn't walk or stand..would just fall over on that side. I was ready to call off work and go off to the vet when we REALLY looked at his leg. Much to our relief, the dressing had slid down and was to heavy for him. Took the dressing off and off he went! Thanks to all who wrote me Sue 7. Subject: Tally From: "Melissa" Date sent: Sat, 6 May 2000 18:44:16 -0400 >6. Tally is fine >From: Zatsusan@aol.com >Date sent: Tue May 02 05:29:26 2000 > >Dear All, > >I posted recently on Tally grinding his teeth. I took him to the wonderful >ferret vet I have recently found and she gave him the all-clear. She's not sure >why he's grinding his teeth but he isn't in pain or uncomfortable. Just >thought I'd pass on the good news and many thanks to all those who e-mailed me >with suggestions. Thank you all again! I'm glad your vet gave him the "all clear" but you might want to approach her again and ask about treating for ulcers. There really aren't any tests to diagnose ulcers in ferrets. Even the stools can look normal if it hasn't progressed too far. If he's still grinding his teeth I would suspect that something (maybe ulcers, maybe not) is still wrong. -Melissa __________________________________ http://members.aol.com/NYCFerrets http://home.att.net/~The_Ferrets __________________________________ ----------------------- End of FAIML #420 -------------------------