A much more common cause of this than bladder stones is prostate
enlargement secondary to the hormonal problems of adrenal gland disease.
 
http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/ferrethealth/prostate.txt wil be
helpful for you but incase you aren't at your computer right now I
will copy the text to you privately because the sit4e is due to go
down for 2 days for maintenance.
 
Meanwhile, you will find a number of helpful posts at the FHL
Complete Archives which will be up:
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/
 
Of course, you can also find info on a number of other health problems in
those archives, including bladder stones, corrective surgery, etc..  They
have almost 2 years worth of posts by ferret vets and many who are used
to ferrets' health problems and it is very easily searched archive.  You
should also be able to find useful posts on such topics by using the FML
Archive (See FML header for addy.) which is also easily searched.  Both
are well designed and friendly resources.  I use them a lot.
 
Yes, with corrective surgery by a ferret knowledgeable vet adrenal
neoplasia is far from fatal.  Even one of the forms of malignancies they
can get there usually is not with rapid surgery.
 
The chance of a second adrenal also going up is something like 15% to
20%.  There are possible things under testing to try to reduce the onset
including: providing enough hours of complete darkness, giving melatonin,
or giving Lupron.
 
Important note: Ferret do cost a lot medically to maintain.  That is one
of the essentials of ferrets.  For those who are insured from kithood
there is insurance which can help, but for older ones the insurance
company is often reported as not paying out.  Saving for medical needs
is ESSENTIAL when one has a ferret or three.  Surgery is likely to be
needed, especially for adrenal neoplasia, insulinoma, or both, and
possibly for other needs.  This is just a fact of ferrets.  I know that
for some this info comes too late or wasn't noticed other times when so
many have said it, but maybe someone else whose ferrets can benefit from
it will notice it this time around, so in case it helps someone it is
here again.
 
There is a lot of GOOD ferret medical info out there which is written by
vets.  One quick way to connect to many of these resources is to follow
the links in the Critical Resources at http://www.ferretcongress.org .
 
Of course, NOTHING replaces good hands-on care by a vet who knows
ferrets.  (And when vets don't know ferrets resources like Dr. Debbie
Kemmerer's tapes which Mike told about yesterday -- Send GET FERRET 4033
to <[log in to unmask]> to get that issue -- the tapes of Charlie
Weiss who is also a vet, and vet texts such as those by Doctors Karen
Purcell, Cathy Quesenberry, Liz Hillyer, or James Fox are treasures for
learning as well as confirming.  There are also vets who ask questions
on the FHL as well as those who answer them.)
[Posted in FML issue 4034]