>I have a female ferret that was given to me who is of unknown age.
>She apparently has adrenal disease as she has lost most of her fur.
>What concerns me most is that she has an enlarged lower abdomen, and
>her skin on her back has occasional red splotches on it.  Sometimes
>there are quite a lot of them, and they come and go.
 
Couple of possibilities here -
 
1) The skin problem may be related to adrenal disease.  Adrenal ferrets
often develop red spots on the skin, which tend to last for a couple of
days and then disappear.  We still don't know exactly what causes them,
but they don't last long.
 
2) Now the enlarged abdomen may simply be an accumulation of fat in the
abdomen, which is common in older to geriatric ferrets with adrenal
disease (they get pretty pear-shaped.) However, it could also be the
result of other diseases such as heart disease, or even some types of
tumors in the abdomen.  In such cases, an abdominal X- ray can quickly
discern between fat and fluid, and is probably the first course of
action here.  Wouldn't want to do adrenal surgery on a ferret with heart
disease...
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3816]