Kay, sure, a number of us have thriving ferrets who have been through
bilaterals, many a good number of years ago.  Luckily the FHL Archives
is located separately from the Ferret Health List because Smartgroups is
having problems again.  (I know, I know, but there simply don't appear to
any free hosts who are as reliable as one would like.)  Anyway, you can
read about these quite a bit in the FHL Archives at
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/
 
Writing in bilateral, or florinef, or percorten there gets a lot of
search responses such as:
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG3856
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG3858
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG3898
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG3656
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG1094
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG970
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG827
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG3132
 
That selection includes info from 5 ferret specialist veterinarians, and
I think the selection covers most of the typical questions that arise
about these.
 
Not all ferrets lose enough adrenal tissue to need meds; some lose enough
to need meds temporarily and others lose enough to need meds permanently.
Our Ashling has been on meds for a complete bilateral adrenalectomy for
three years.  Even though she is no spring chicken she still regularly
stashes our TV remote which weighs a quarter of what she does on the
shallow ledge at the top of our closet -- about 8 feet in the air.
 
This is a post from vet, Dr. Jerry Murray, about a ferret who needed
those meds:
 
>Percorten-v (every 4 weeks) or florinef (daily) will be needed to
>maintain sodium and potassium in the normal range.  This is what the
>mineralocorticoids do.  Some will also need Pediapred.  This will vary
>from 2 times a day to once every 2-3 days depending on the ferret,
>stress level, etc.
>
>Adding a small amount of salt to the diet helps sometimes too.
>Saline solution (0.9%NACL) can be used for drinking water and for
>SQ/IV fluids if needed.
 
You'll also find plenty about this in the Ferret Mailing List Archives
(address in the header of every day's FML) and in the links found in the
Critical References at http://www.ferretcongress.org .
 
Some folks prefer Percorten shots specifically because of the trouble
with oral meds you mention.
 
Alice, you can find a vet using the Critical References URL in the
paragraph above; there are a lot of lists and each is different form
the next.  It is also often useful to check the SOS shelter list since
the vets the shelters use are listed.
[Posted in FML issue 4109]