When they get unusually clingy or suddenly act infant-like as adults a
vet appointment and testing always makes sense to be safest.  Sometimes
it is their only way to say, "I don't feel well." Hopefully, it is just
a new game, but avoiding normal life processes to do it sounds like the
ferret feels that something is wrong.  BTW, are YOU well?  I've had
ferrets behave clingy and unusually highly obedient for as long as 6
weeks when I was post-op.
 
 ---
 
Jen, NOPE, there is no way pre-op to accurately know the adrenal stage
(though the more complications and the worse the symptoms the worse it
usually is).  Perhaps the closest you can come may be to spend the big
bucks to have the TN Panel and see how off the hormonal levels are, but
since different growths can behave differently don't count on it telling
you much about stage...
 
Only surgery can tell you how big it is, and only biopsies sent to a
ferret-knowledgeable pathologist can tell you what the root cause is.
 
BTW, there is a fine article by Dr. Karen Purcell in the latest issue
of "Ferrets" on surgery and what it entails.
 
If you are worried you can think about doing some of her pre-op testing
now (as well as closer to surgery) to make sure there aren't problems
like anemia.
 
Usually two weeks is no problem.
 
Males are at more risk than females because of prostate complications.
---
 
This should be of interest to the person who wrote to Bob:
http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/pr0370.htm
 
There is at least one stem cell research project being done on ferrets,
but it is (was?) not targeted toward ferret health projects but more for
learning basics to help human research.  I can't recall details, but
think it may be for work on kidney repair.  Maybe a month or so ago I had
to search it down for someone who wondered if the umbilical cords and
placenta from that family's breeders may be of use.  Although I gave the
person the name, addy, location, and project of the researcher I never
heard back so I don't know anything further.  If I get the time I'll try
to recall what resources I used and try to search down the project again,
but my schedule is pretty hosed so don't count on it.
 
Here are some general places to look to start for those who want to look:
"Nature", "Science", Hubmed, http://www.pnas.org/, etc.
      as well as
http://www.anatomy.uiowa.edu/pages/directory/faculty/engelhardt.html
http://biospace.com/news_category.cfm?CategoryID=37104&SR=61
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~zoogen/dssakagu/sakaguc1.html
http://www.simr.org.uk/pages/advances/index_2003.htm
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life_sciences/inhalt_10.html
 
Remember that is just rough and dirty skimming and Googling for part of
that so some may not be applicable or may require a lot of searching.
[Posted in FML issue 4494]