Dear Joe or Jodi
 
>Please help.  I have a female ferret with adrenal disease and she has had
>surgery to remove her left adrenal gland.  The surgery has not helped and
>she has now lost most of her hair.  I am asking for help in regards to
>other options available for treatment.
 
Actually about 15% of adrenal cases involve both adrenal glands, so removal
of the left may not be enough.
 
You have two options here - surgery on the right adrenal gland (which
should be curative, although there is the possibility that she will
require hormonal replacement therapy for the rest of her life), or medical
therapy - which will cause regrowth of hair, but does nothing to stop the
progression of the disease internally.
 
There is a lot of discussion on both of these options on the FML and a
number of other sites around the Internet.  My stand is that for young,
middle-aged, or healthy older ferrets, adrenal surgery is still the best
option and the only chance for a cure.  Medical treatment is reserved for
non-surgical candidates, as adrenal tumors continue to grow unchecked.  The
hair will grow back though.  And if the tumor is malignant, well, then it
does continue to grow, until bad things happen to a fully haired ferret.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3308]