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Post by Heather on May 13, 2011 11:09:05 GMT -5
Talk to your vet, some are more receptive than others. Sherry's vet is a no go, at least the last time I heard. There is a stickied thread on how to order the Des implants and the contacts. There are two ladies who exclusively handle the orders. They are backordered to July at last conversation. I put my orders in this past week as my guys need theirs in July. You can always use the lupron/melatonin until your order goes in. I did this with Pooka, she had a couple of months of lupron. I"m glad that Finn is doing so well. Give him a hug from me and tell him he's a really brave boy ciao
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Post by finniganpiper on May 13, 2011 11:44:26 GMT -5
Yes, I saw that sticky and printed it out so I can talk to my vet. Wow! Backordered until July?!?!! What a huge bummer! I should get on ordering it then and we'll work on the melatonin/lupron until that point then. Thank you!!! He will definitely be getting all the hugs he can handle Thanks again Heather!
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Post by miamiferret2 on May 13, 2011 12:16:34 GMT -5
Where do you live?
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Post by finniganpiper on May 13, 2011 12:33:54 GMT -5
Eastern NY about 1/2hr outside of Albany, 25-30mins from Troy and about 30-35mins from Pittsfield, MA.
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Post by miamiferret2 on May 13, 2011 13:24:04 GMT -5
how far are you from Brockport, NY? this vet dr. edwards is using deslorelin on ferret patients. give them a call. maybe when he feels better you can take a little road trip with him. i just called them up and and its on backorder unfortunately they have been waiting for the des implants since april. so she said for you to call back in a couple of weeks. but rosie warren from peptech told me that they are on backorder til june or july possible. no big deal though just put him on lupron monthly injections for may, june, etc. until those implants come in! brockport animal hospital 6352 Brockport-Spencerport Road Brockport, NY 14420 Phone Number: 585-637-6190 www.myvetonline.com/brockport/clinic-sitemap-general-information-staff-members.html
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Post by miamiferret2 on May 13, 2011 13:37:31 GMT -5
there's also a clinic in NYC that uses the deslorelin implants on ferrets now but that's probably farther away for you than brockport
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Post by miamiferret2 on May 13, 2011 13:44:30 GMT -5
here's the old link on deslorelin if you want to talk to your vet about ordering the deslorelin from peptech ask him/her to email them. they will walk him through it. the hassle on ordering is only the first time that he orders. after that, they have his info on file he can order new shipments without a problem. holisticferret.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=stickies&action=print&thread=6774
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Post by finniganpiper on May 13, 2011 13:54:51 GMT -5
Yup! Thank you. This is the one I printed, just waiting for the vet to call with the biopsy results so I can see if I should get it through my normal vet or the specialist. ...hmmm...maybe I should just call my normal vet now so she can get on it and get the order going....might do that as soon as I get out of work today. She doesn't come in until Monday at the earliest anyway, but at least we could start the process that much sooner for the little man.
Would it be wise to start Piper on this as well as a preventative? I'm just a little concerned about it masking symptoms if she did end up with it, so I'm not really too sure what is best. She just turned four in December (hahaha "just"...I keep forgetting we're practically into summer here, Finn's almost 5 already...ugh!)
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Post by miamiferret2 on May 13, 2011 14:29:36 GMT -5
well, masking symptoms of adrenal disease is exactly the point of these medications. remember that there is still a tumor on the right side. most likely he left it in bc that is the one that is most dangerous and most difficult to remove. also, if you remove both at the same time then the ferret has to be on hormone medications to prevent addisons. so, you still have to treat that one tumor that is left. the symptoms are quite awful especially in advanced stages. at the moment, the only "preventive" for adrenal disease is not neutering/spaying. many veterinarians are recommending using deslorelin to prevent tumors. however, the general consensus is that you must give it to the ferrets before their initial hormone spike (we implanted our ferret in january when he was 5 months old to prevent or stave it off hopefully) your ferret already has adrenal disease. even though you did surgery, you should still use either lupron and deslorelin and melatonin from now on. these meds usually work very well to treat adrenal in most ferrets (use either des or lupron-- i haven't heard of anyone using both at the same time. both drugs do the same thing but the lupron kind of sucks because you have to do it once a month). there have been reports of adrenal lesions being healed somewhat after des implants (read mustelidmusks deslorelin thread). then again, all tumors are different so we can't assume that this will happen with all ferrets.
the "adrenal vaccine" is still in its early stages. results are so far so good but they have been seeing some local reactions at the vax site. so we'll have to wait on that i guess.
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Post by Heather on May 13, 2011 14:36:51 GMT -5
I have to admit I'm fence sitting on this one too. I just rescued a baby fuzz and Minion would be a prime candidate for a preventative des implant. I'm just really scared of taking a very good component out of my adrenal fighting arsenal. They told us that if we used Melatonin that would work as a preventative, turns out it doesn't, it masks. Unfortunately, if you've used it as a preventative, it's no longer really available as one of the stepping stone medications to help you fight the adrenal once it takes hold. Then they said lupron was "the" drug. It's not, again though it helps hold it at bay, it doesn't prevent the progression. If you've been using it prior to adrenal again, it's been removed from your arsenal. Now, they're saying des is the drug. My vet isn't buying into it yet. She's adopted a wait and see, and I'm not pushing the issue. I want to see difinitive proof. There isn't any, so I'm waiting. Don't make my stand yours though, I'm just telling it from my point of view and through the discussion I've had with my vet . ciao
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Post by miamiferret2 on May 13, 2011 15:05:00 GMT -5
i asked the vet about the whole melatonin and lupron being a big failure for prevention. i don't remember exactly but: he told me that melatonin is produced naturally by the body and in ferrets that have adrenal tumors their bodies are not producing it as it normally should. so, melatonin will relieve symptoms but will never block the pineal gland from doing something that causes the adrenal glands to overwork and become diseased ( i realize that i'm sounding ignorant but i don't remember exactly what he told me). he told me that the lupron was being used by people to "prevent" but they were only using it during the first part of the year and some people were only doing a few injections and that's that. the problem is that he said we don't know when these ferrets have their hormone spikes. everyone's condition is different. he said that if you live in a place that is closer to the equator then the ferret will have hormone spikes at different times of the year versus someone that lives further north. the thing with deslorelin is that it lasts much longer. 9 months to 1 year depending on who you talk to. so we'll see what happens. i'm taking the chance. Hopefully, Sonny will be a source of information for others in the future. i will continue to have him implanted every january and i will report any news here.
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Post by finniganpiper on May 13, 2011 17:06:52 GMT -5
Well I got an email back from PepTech about the Des and I'm waiting to get ahold of my vet to see what she thinks and if she's up for trying it. I figure it's worth a shot.
Miami - they planned to take both adrenals if they were involved, which they were, but Finn started vomiting before the surgery could be fully completed and they tried to get him to stop for over a half an hour to no avail and closed him up before they lost him. She is very upset that she couldn't finish the surgery to the full extent so we would be worrying less about the tumor and its growth, but we were just not fortunate that way, so now it's hormone therapies.
I am thinking after reading your posts, with some really great info and opinions, that I should wait before getting Piper in on the des implant unless she needs it. In what I've researched and read, I think it's a viable option to consider for Finn knowing that he now either has an allergy to something with the anesthesia/surgery process or an underlined disease causing vomiting, so I'm guessing he's not a good candidate for surgery ever again to remove the other gland, so hormone treatment is probably our best/safest bet for him.
Still no word on the biopsy results, so I'm hoping to hear something on Monday. We'll see.... I'm reading using the time to read up on liver issues in ferrets and all the possible causes/diseases/symptoms/etc.
I'm off to give them their last pain killers!
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Post by miamiferret2 on May 13, 2011 17:45:54 GMT -5
Sounds good (for piper) . But you are definitely putting your Adrenal ferret on lupron or des right? Looks like future surgeries are out of the question for the little guy.
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Post by finniganpiper on May 13, 2011 20:12:24 GMT -5
Sounds good (for piper) . But you are definitely putting your Adrenal ferret on lupron or des right? Looks like future surgeries are out of the question for the little guy. Yes either lupron or des + melatonin. I would say that because of the vomiting ( but I could be wrong - he did well under surgery once, but I'm guessing this vet won't want to chance adrenal removal again), surgery is probably not an option again (unless a diar emergency occurred) which is completely frustrating that we couldn't get it all the first time... but I know the vet tried her hardest and is just as frustrated and I'd rather have him alive and doing well (not considering the adrenal and possible liver issues) than have her tried and lost him while he was under.
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Post by miamiferret2 on May 13, 2011 20:17:45 GMT -5
My ferrets have lived a long time w/ Adrenal disease.(more than 4 years actually) and no surgeries just meds. You obviously care a lot about your ferrets and you are doing everything that you possibly can. They are some lucky ferrets.
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