Adrenal removal surgery scheduled for Juliet

[Deleted]

We took Juliet to the veterinarian on Tuesday and after discussing the possibilities, risks, and other options, we decided to go with surgical removal. We did not do the Tennessee Panel and she does not have any clinical signs accept the swollen vulva but if he cuts her open and it is a botched spay instead of AD then he said he can go ahead and fix the botched spay but odds are it is not since I have had her for over 1 year and she hasn't had this before. The people who I adopted her from (an adoption association) is helping me through everything, and I more than trust my Vet. Since Juliet has a great quality of life and hasn't lost any hair or weight then we can go in, take the tumor out (hopefully if it isn't on the right to where we cannot), and even if it grows back she will be almost 6 years old by then and so if it did come back we could manage it with medication until she passed.
To my surprise, the surgery isn't very expensive. He added up how much it would be and so altogether it will be $240. I have so much support on this already, but I do have a couple questions I would like to ask about the post-op care right now, her surgery is scheduled for Thursday the 27th (of March, this month)

Dr. Allen (my vet) told me to set an alarm for 4:00am to take the food out of her cage, so I was just wondering, should I wake her up and see if she will eat at around 3:00am or so and then take it out at 4 incase she already had not eaten for hours before? 

And another one, Juliet and my little boy, Caillou, are very very close. Except Cai is twice her size and about 2 years younger than her so he is very rough and rambunctious during play time so the vet told me to keep them separated for two weeks after her surgery so he doesn't rip her stitches open or hurt her, so do you think for the two weeks after I could just let them meet with me holding her or through the bars so he doesn't get lonely? I know I will be playing with him for a few hours more since he won't have her, but I thought I would at least let them see each other. 
And I would really appreciate hearing anyone else's experience with Adrenal Disease/Surgery and how you managed and anything you did special for them during recovery. 
(I tried to reply on my last post but for a few days it kept saying 'error' so I'm sorry about that, I did read and appreciate all of your advice)

I understand a lot of people suggest managing with medication instead of taking the risk of them not making it through surgery or afterward complications but I made my decision for a reason. See, my oldest and my very first ferret was diagnosed with Insulinoma last year and since then has gotten worse. Twice a day my little baby has to be forced to swallow medicine that she hates and even then she doesn't play like she used to, sometimes she doesn't have the energy to even use her litterbox or eat on her own. If one dose is missed she either seizes or gets to a point where she is almost comatose. I have watched her deteriorate throughout the past year and with almost no quality of life left we go through the same routine every day, her kicking and scratching not to take her medicine and me wiping her own feces off of her at least every other week because her blood sugar dropped. I will not go through that with my Juliet, she still runs and plays and loves living and even if medication can help her symptoms, I want her to have a chance to live without all the implants and meds. Everything has risks, and I have chosen to take this one. I feel I have made the right decision and I hope that can be understood by others. 
Thank you

[Deleted]

Julesalot
You've had to make some hard decisions, and it sounds like you have carefully and lovingly thought them thru. Don't you wish that you could explain everything to Juliet, and wouldn't it be less painful if you could have her surgery for her? What a relief to have a good ferret Doc, that you trust and I'm really surprised the cost of her surgery is so reasonable.
I have no experience with Adrenal or surgery to offer you. I just wanted to let you know that I will be thinking of you and Juliet, and sending all my best Well Wishes.

Stef

[Sherry]

I understand exactly where you are coming from. I am one of those who refuse surgery for adrenal. They instea have once a month injections.
However we DID do surgery for insulinoma with one as meds were useless(didn't help so moot point). She is now on meds 5 times a day
However I DID find with being raw fed she healed up so much faster than the vet had expected. 5 days and she was almost completely healed. At 7 days we were able to let her be back with her friends again.

[Jeremy's Boggle]

I haven't had adrenal surgery done on one but have had 2 with major surgery. I set a box up beside the sick ferrets cage so that their friends could sit beside them & visit. This seemed to make all of them happier during the recovery period.

[Deleted]

I've found that adrenal is more manageable with meds than insolinoma. We currently have a nine year old in the rescue that started adrenal treatment a year ago. He tires a bit quicker, but still gets up and plays with the others and has a good quality of life. I'll take an adrenal diagnosis over insolinoma any day!

Did the vet tell you directly to remove the food? I find that odd. I've had the office staff tell me that from habit, but had them double check. Food isn't usually removed from ferrets due to their unique digestive system. You may want to ask about that and insist that they ask the vet.

[unclejoe]

I haven't had adrenal surgery done, but I would not do it because at best it's a temporary fix, and if the right gland is affected it's much too risky to remove it. Any surgery is risky for fuzzies, anyway. Before you commit to surgery, ask your vet if he can get Suprelorin F implants and Lupron. Suprelorin lasts anywhere form 6 months to a year for the first one and, in our experience, up to 18 months for the second one on. Lupron helps to jump start the Suprelorin, so if you can get both initially, you should be good for a year.  We're having a hard time finding Lupron that we can afford, so we're going with the Suprelorin alone.

I don't see any reason they couldn't be separated by cage bars but still have visual, auditory and olfactory contact for 2 weeks. Some vets will pull the stitches in 10 days.

[Heather]

I've only had one who had the adrenal surgery done. I didn't have it done, Loki had it done at the shelter as he had blocked up and his people couldn't afford the $1500 surgery. Back then there weren't really many other options other than monthly lupron. Loki was considered very young at the time to have adrenal, he was 4 (goes to show you how bad things have become). Loki was about 8 yrs old when things started to go badly for him and his adrenal issues started up again. We knew at the time that another surgery was not going to happen but he lived happily and comfortably with the DES for another year. It was with Loki that I discovered that the DES implant timing didn't necessarily apply for "all" ferrets and I started using it every 6 months rather than waiting for it to wear off.
Good luck with your little one. Her healing candle is lit.
ciao

[goingpostal]

I've had a couple adrenalectomies done and ferrets heal pretty fast in general, within a few days mine were all getting around and behaving normally, although I don't allow any climbing/jumping so if you have multi level cages, using something one level would be safer. When they get out of surgery they look terrible! Pain meds help, they will sleep a lot and get more active as they feel better. I've always kept sick or injured ferrets in the same room as the rest, just in low cage or dog kennel and not had any issues from separation.

[Deleted]

I hope that posting on this doesn't dredge up bad memories, I just wanted to say that I hope everything worked out well with your fuzzies, and that they are doing well. My friends had to make some tough choices when it came to their dogs. One of their first ones had some really bad medical issues and they still feel bad about how everything worked out, even though they did the best they could do at that time.

[Deleted]

Sorry it took so long for my reply-
Nah, Juliet is doing very well. The larger dose of melatonin is working (for now) and she's very happy

[Deleted]

That's fine. I'm glad she is doing better.