About a month ago, Zinc was at the vet for her 4-6 week bloodwork check up
(for IBD and the meds she was on).  Prior to this checkup (likely several
months before) she had developed what is commonly known as rat tail (not a
big case, but you could see the black heads on the underside).  I wish I
had noted exactly when this occurred.  I didn't really take it too
seriously since it's only blackheads.  She had exploratory surgery in
November 2000, was diagnosed with IBD, and put on pediapred and Imuran.
 
As we began weaning her off pediapred, she began gaining a bunch of weight
(from 1lb 3oz to 1lb 13oz!).  I thought ferrets gained weight on pediapred,
not suppressed it.  Additionally, she began growing a whole new coat
underneath the old one.  The day prior to this visit with the vet, she
lost an enormous amount of old fur.  I thought it was the pediapred as
I've had the same experiences on prednisone.  The vet thought it was most
likely adrenal.  She had surgery, and sure enough, the left adrenal was
removed.  She's been fine since.
 
Now, just this past week, Pixie began having diarrhea.  She stopped eating
and lost 5oz of weight in one week.  Luckily, we had yet another Zinc
appointment, which turned into a Pixie appointment.  Pixie has had rat
tail for approximately a year now.  She had surgery yesterday and the vet
removed the left adrenal, 2 tumors from the pancreas, and biopsied a
number of organs.  She showed NO signs of any of these things until 1 week
ago!
 
Is it really just a coincidence that they both had rattail and adrenal?
I'm beginning to think that rattail is just an early sign of adrenal.
Zinc's rattail is gone now.  I let you know whether Pixie's goes away as
a result of the surgery.  Any comments?
 
Suzanna
[Posted in FML issue 3564]