ADRENALINE RUSH! Complications of removing adrenal gland tumours in dogs Adrenal glands are small organs with a big role to play. They are responsible for producing hormones like adrenaline and cortisol that are involved in controlling the body’s blood pressure, metabolism and response to stress. You can therefore imagine that when one or both of these glands become diseased, a variety of things can start to go wrong in the body. Although adrenal gland tumours in dogs are relatively uncommon, they can cause some very uncomfortable symptoms for our pets such as high blood pressure, anxiety, weight gain, changes in urination and hair loss. If left untreated, these tumours can lead to serious consequences for your pet. Adrenal tumours can arise from different parts of the gland, and can cause a variety of symptoms depending on whether they are secreting hormones, and what hormones they are secreting. The only way to completely cure an adrenal tumour is to remove the entire adrenal gland by performing a surgery called an adrenalectomy. Although this surgery has the ability to cure your pet, it is often put off so your vet can prescribe a course of medicine to stabilise the dog before surgery. This is done to reduce the likelihood of your pet experiencing surgical complications such as unpredictable blood pressure and heart rate, bleeding and clots. These complications are common in adrenalectomies largely because the adrenal gland may release excess adrenaline and cortisol which can have serious effects on the body. After removal of the gland, the dog may have the opposite problem as the body suddenly finds itself with not enough of these hormones, in which case medicine is needed whilst the body recovers. Pre-surgical treatment is a standard protocol in humans with adrenal tumours, and has been popular in veterinary medicine. Recently however, it has been found that delaying this life-saving surgery to pre-treat dogs does not reduce the likelihood of them developing serious complications, and that other factors may be more important. Our review supports this idea. In our study we found that dogs that developed high blood pressure during adrenalectomy had a bigger influence on whether they developed serious complications, and that pre-treatment was not important. We believe that getting your pet to surgery to remove the potentially life-threatening tumour early, combined with excellent blood pressure management by your veterinarian during surgery will result in the best outcome for your pet. 1300 687 3624 murdoch.edu.au .