From: Lynn McIntosh [faiml@uswest.net] Sent: Saturday, October 16, 1999 10:12 AM To: mjanke@miamiferret.org Subject: (Fwd) Adrenal List #45 Forwarded message: From: Self To: @SENDLIST.PML Subject: Adrenal List #45 Reply-to: Lynn McIntosh Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 19:15:26 Hi there! I just want you all to know that I'm taking off to be there for my dad's aneurism surgery (descending abdominal aorta) in Portland. I'll be back Wed. or Thurs., so if you want the group to get something send it on out to the group and to me too. I'll put it in the next list. I hope Max is still doing well and will look soon for news of his bladder histology, hoping it is good news. Wally is still doing very well after three days on Lysodren. And, of course, I'll keep you all posted about that. Kim. $800 seems quite high for adrenal surgery. If you can safely post in what area you're located (of the U.S.) perhaps people can help with locating a more affordable vet! Remember, that Lysodren might be tried too, and could at least be started upon until surgery is more of an option. Also, in the Vena Cava Ligation list, there are some numbers of ferret docs who might be consulted by your new-vet friend, not in preparation for the right-sided adrenal necessary, but just to consult re: technique. I'll forward that list to you. Dr. Weiss is very experienced and can consult, perhaps even during the operation if it were so prearranged! I will be in Florida and New Mexico between Sept. 17 and 29th, and can post lists directly upon return, but I'll remind you all before I go. Hugs to all our fuzzies and keep good thoughts in mind for my dad - surgery 12:30 pm September 9! Thank you all for being there, Lynn Adrenal Li8st #45, dated Sept. 8, 1997 1. Max's Surgery 2. Max's Surgery 3. Max's Surgery 4. New to List, Fuzzy with Tumor (Sabine) 5. Moni Juice 6. Adrenal List #44 (Lysodren) - Max surgery! 1.---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 6 Sep 1997 04:20:36 -0400 From: "Michael F. Janke" Subject: Max's surgery Good morning everyone. It's about 4am and I've finally gotten a few spare moments to write. So here I sit in a pair of jeans and my wife's bathrobe, since mine is in the wash, crusted with A/D, chicken baby food and who knows what else! I must be a sight, but after today and considering the time, I'm beyond any fashion worries! Today was a very aggravating day for us. I was hoping Max would get his surgery early in the day so they'd have plenty of time to monitor him, but it didn't happen that way. Dr. Jaffe wanted to save Max for last so she could concentrate on him (which is good I suppose) but that meant he didn't go into surgery until 4:30pm. We were on pins and needles waiting. I knew I was getting a little on edge when the vet tech I was talking to said, "Well, I can see you're irritated, so let me put you in a room with Max until it's time." Ok, so much for the chit chat. Dr. Jaffe removed half of Max's remaining right adrenal gland. As usual, the vena cava prevented removing the whole thing, but I don't know if we wanted to do that anyway since that would leave him with none. It wasn't that large compared to some, only the size of a pea with normal being around matchhead size. That's the good news. The bad news is that his bladder wall is quite thickened and his bladder is about twice its normal size and somewhat flattened. She did a biopsy of the bladder, and now it's just a waiting game to see what's going on with it. She took a look at a small sample of it under the microscope and could only see lots of white blood cells and "irritated cells," whatever that is, but no abnormal looking cells. She said that's promising, but we still won't know for sure until the pathology report comes back around thursday. The other good news is that I haven't seen any blood in his urine since yesterday. Up until then, and for almost two weeks, it had blood in it every time he peed. By the way, his prostate appeared to be totally normal, though I might have rather heard that that was enlarged due to the adrenal rather than him having this bladder problem. We left the vet's office around 7pm and returned at 9pm to pick up Max. I was surprised to see him up and moving around. These guys really amaze me. The tech removed the IV and we put him in a generously padded carrier and wisked him home to an equally soft bed in the blocked off upper level of his cage. He slept pretty well for an hour or two and we managed to get some food and water into him around 11. He's been up and down peeing, since he still has that urge, but otherwise he seems comfortable. I hate to wake him, but I probably should try to get a little more nourishment in him again. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and good thoughts. Sorry for the lengthy message, but at 4am, you guys are the only ones I can talk to! For the ferrets, Mike 2.---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 7 Sep 1997 06:44:52 -0400 From: "Michael F. Janke" Subject: Re: Max's surgery > Michael, what a sweet opening. We do love our little fuzzies so, don't > we! To what lengths we go. At least Wanda's robe is a plain, old cotton number and not one of those real frilly feminine things, so I didn't feel too silly! > I'm glad that Max was able to have some adrenal tissue removed. That at > least, should help. I hope the bladder problems isn't serious, though it > does sound unusual. I wonder about the "appearance" of the prostate, Dr. Jaffe said the bladder was very unusual and had never seen anything like that. Just what we needed to hear. I don't know what to say about the prostate, but since he only has half an adrenal left, perhaps that will help it if there is any swelling in the prostate. > Keep up posted on Max and I've very curious to know what is found out > about the bladder. The important thing is he's doing well now and came > through with flying colors! Max doesn't seem to be doing as well yesterday as he was when we first brought him home. His appetite has diminished and I had to give him subq fluids last night. That seemed to help as his appetite returned at the next feeding. We'll watch him closely all day today and I'll probably leave him at the clinic on Monday since we both have to work. To top it off, I have jury duty this week! What timing. So far I'm just on standby. > Wally is on second day of Lysodren and no symptoms. He will have one day > on more, then two off. I'll keep you posted. I hope it works better for you than it has for me. > Hope you got a little sleep Michael!! We use that top of the cage > recovery route too, and it works great - puts the fur kid up right next to > my bed. I eventually got a little nap in the afternoon on the couch while my wife stood watch. Then went to bed around 9pm while she took her turn again. I got up and We fed Max around 1am and I set the alarm for 5am, and we both went to bed. He's sleeping right now (6:45am) and I hate to wake him, but he needs to eat something pretty soon. For the ferrets, Mike 3.---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 7 Sep 1997 13:09:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Lynn Mcintosh To: "Michael F. Janke" Subject: Re: Max's surgery Hi Michael. > At least Wanda's robe is a plain, old cotton number and not one of those > real frilly feminine things, so I didn't feel too silly! Oh, I didn't mean it was that "sweet" :) Every once in a while I find some item of clothing at a garage sale I'm not sure about, so just pop it on Janos to see how it looks. He's a good sport. > Dr. Jaffe said the bladder was very unusual and had never seen anything > like that. Just what we needed to hear. I don't know what to say about > the prostate, but since he only has half an adrenal left, perhaps that will > help it if there is any swelling in the prostate. I guess we'll just have to wait for the histology report. I wonder if this condition has been seen by other ferrety vets... > Max doesn't seem to be doing as well yesterday as he was when we first > brought him home. His appetite has diminished and I had to give him subq > fluids last night. That seemed to help as his appetite returned at the > next feeding. We'll watch him closely all day today and I'll probably > leave him at the clinic on Monday since we both have to work. To top it > off, I have jury duty this week! What timing. So far I'm just on standby. If he got pain medication (probably did) as part of the anesthesia protocol, that may have worn off. My vet says that the internal tissue pain is the worst kind (she had a hysterectomy and was remembering that). Percy needed force feeding the first day and sub-q's too, then he perked up a bit the second and more the third. I hope the trial is a short one! > > Wally is on second day of Lysodren and no symptoms. He will have one day > > on more, then two off. I'll keep you posted. > > I hope it works better for you than it has for me. So far so good. He's perky as can be on the third day. Now he'll have two days off. Janos gave him a tablet of prednisone today. That helps since the Lysodren kills off corticol producing tissue as well as estrogen producing. I expect he may show some side effects in the second round. Pam's Oreo is still doing great with lots of energy, hair regrowth and vulva decrease. I sure hopt that continues! > I eventually got a little nap in the afternoon on the couch while my wife > stood watch. Then went to bed around 9pm while she took her turn again. I > got up and We fed Max around 1am and I set the alarm for 5am, and we both > went to bed. He's sleeping right now (6:45am) and I hate to wake him, but > he needs to eat something pretty soon. > Well, he couldn't have better care. Tell him hello and give a little hug from Janos, Lynn, Wally and gang in Washington. I hope he perks up soon, Lynn 4.---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 7 Sep 1997 10:04:10 -0700 From: kammee@juno.com Subject: New to List, Fuzzy with Tumor Hi, I'm new to the fuzzy adrenal list, but the adrenal tumor in our fuzzy, unfortunately, is not new to her. Sabine has had an adrenal tumor for the past few months. She was diagnosed with it over 2 months ago, but may have had it for longer. Our problem is $$$$. Our usual vet wants almost $800 for the surgery, and we are still paying her in monthly installments for the $1200 she charged us last year for our other fuzzy that had lympho sarcoma and passed away. Question: A friend of ours recently graduated from vet school and would like to perform the adrenal surgery on Sabine, but she has never performed the surgery before. She has seen it done and knows how to do it and would be assisted. She will do the surgery for $450. Is this safe????? What are the effects of leaving the adrenal tumor without operating on it? Sabine seems happier than she's ever been, except for the constant scratching!! Any advice would be most appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank You!!!!!! Kim 5.---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 07 Sep 1997 12:59:16 -0500 (CDT) From: Amy Cada Subject: re: Noni juice... Anything that can help a person or fuzzy in their journey towards wellness is wonderful, but I feel that a few of the testimonials are a bit far-fetched.. specifically: "NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS: Recovery is much faster when Noni is used to treat things like vestibular syndrome, certain types of seizures, brain damage from trauma, spinal cord injuries from slipped or ruptured intervertebral disk, stroke. I had a few seizuring comatose or paralyzed dogs and cats that came in on a stretcher but walked out of here in a matter of hours or days." Brain damage from trauma? Could this be true? I've been reading the literature on brain damage for years, as well as conducting research in this field, and I can tell you that once the brain is damaged, that's it; compensatory mechanisms can recover function/behavior fairly well as other areas take over, but there is no drug, and I assure you no juice, than can aid recovery or repair of the brain, spinal cord, stroke????????? No way. I'm sorry. It really urks me to see one person's testimonials about things like that, without any actual research, of which I can find none, nor can the company produce any, only testimonials here and there... OTOH, off my soapbox now, mixed fruit juice improved my adrenal fuzzy SIGNIFICANTLY this spring before she finally succumbed and couldn't keep her blood sugar stable. Before that time I couldn't get her to constantly eat or drink anything to keep her blood sugar levels up. Noni juice might be tasty and could thus provide vitamins, carbos, and some sugar in a palatable form to support and heal injuries. If it works, it works. My vet doesn't prescribe anything other than conventional therapies, but she won't argue with my trying non-conventional ones; I've tried many, some work, some don't, just like conventional... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Amy Cada Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, UT Down yonder in Texas!! Terrierists: Asta Cadova NA!!, Wile E. and Gryphon agility, flyball, water, and ratting freak-a-zoids geriatric ferrets: Farris & Hobbes; Zowie & Foster @ RB ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 6.---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 8 Sep 1997 10:22:09 -0600 From: Troy Lynn Eckart Subject: Re: Adrenal List #44 (Lysodren) - Max surgery! Hi Everyone - Petey was started on the 7 days on then every 3 days initially. He did fine. Several times I tried to make his doses further apart and we are finally at a point where he does well on every 3rd then every 4th day. The dosage is 50 mg/kg and Petey is on 50 mg. His weight has actually increased so I'd say he now weighs closer to 3 pounds and the Lysodren is still effective at the original dose. As for worrying about the toxicity for me - I don't. Personally I look at it that Petey takes it, he is doing well. How much is a tiny drop going to hurt me? Probably not at all. I do make sure the other ferrets aren't near us when medicating. Now I've had this stuff on me and in my mouth. (Spiccup spit it at me and my mouth was open - gross but obviously not deadly.) If a 2.2 pound ferret gets 50 mg and a 134 lb female gets a tiny bit of the 50 mg I don't consider that a risk for me. That doesn't mean I'm not cautious, only that I'm not concerned when a tiny bit gets on my hands. Of course this comes from someone who "tastes" all the ferrets medicines. :-0 Gizzie will be put on Lysodren soon. His left adrenal was removed last year and now he is almost bare. (sigh) Skit will be scheduled for surgery soon. He is loosing large patches of fur. Bud will be put on Lysodren as his right was debulked earlier this year. Sabies surgery doesn't seem to have been successful. Her left was removed and right debulked. She'll go on Lysodren in the near future. Hugs and healing wishes to all. tle ------------------End of Adrenal LIst #45----------------