Well, the single best thing is to get out the bad adrenal if the ferret
is a surgical candidate because not dong so is asking for trouble.
 
If the ferret is not a surgical candidate then Lupron Depot and melatonin
are the primary meds to use right now.  There is research into some other
meds, and, of course, Lysodren has been largely abandoned as a therapy
due to its performance being all over the board -- from not touching it
to so badly atrophying the adrenals that Addisons results.
 
Effectively treating the disease typically removes the milder side
effects of the disease, but there still can be some for whom meds don't
do that, and of course, there are always the more serious possibilities
that can arise like urinary blockage, prostatic swelling worsening to
prostatic cysts, life threatening anemia, incursion into the Vena Cava or
the liver, thoracic fat deposits, a tumor which had been benign changing
to malignant without treatment, a malignant tumor type which does spread
if caught early having time to spread, etc.
 
Secondly, there are soothing shampoos and always the option to
moisturizing with something that is safe to ingest like olive oil.
 
Read past posts of the topic from AFERRETVET and others in
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
 
You can read up on Lupron and Melatonin there and in
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc
 
Pam notes:
>I agree that the later desexing is done, the better.  I really think it
>should be done when the ferret has reached full adulthood.
 
In research into age of onset a difference in a few months does not
change the rate or timing of onset.  A difference of a year can matter,
but given that about half of females die of aplastic anemia if they are
not sterilized and go into heat, and that there is the risk to males in
heat of being dumped, sterilizing the ferrets is actually much safer.
There is at this point no reason to consider a difference of a few
weeks or even a few months to matter in regard to adrenal disease.
The research just doesn't back up differences with timeframes that are
within 6 months of each other.
 
The thing about sterilization is that it acts in conjunction with too
much light exposure.  Neither is a stand-alone.  When there is too much
light the body's pineal gland doesn't create enough melatonin.  This is
turn causes a communicating gland, the pituitary, to turn out hormones
which normal would say, "Hey, ferret breeding season is here.  The one
which matters in this conversation is LH, Luteinizing Hormone.  LH
affects all endocrinological tissue that can produce sex hormones.  This
mainly means reproductive tissues, but sex hormones are always present
in some level because they perform a lot of tasks in the body.  Dozens,
including muscle building, have been found for the androgens, and
hundreds have been found for the estrogens including them being important
for cognitive thought.  The body can change them back and forth into each
other to meet strong enough needs.  Okay, this is what happens with a
whole ferret who mates: the signal comes down and the ferret mates.
Then the reproductive tissue sends a signal back to the pituitary and
the LH stimulation shuts off.  But other tissues which create hormones
can't send a signal back, so in their case they get stimulated to the
level where inflammation occurs and that sets things off according to
the hypothesis which is based on these known endocrinological functions,
and on it being known that continued irritation of an organ can set the
stage for neoplasia and that neoplasia leads to tumors.
 
Also, it appears that there may be some genetics which increase
vulnerability and the increase in the proportions of these in relation to
selective breeding for certain looks like white splotches and white spots
(EXCEPT for original markings or for cleanly margined, complete,
bilaterally matched mitts and bibs without spots which have a different
genetic origin) spells trouble.  This includes panda heads and head
blazes as trouble.  There are two possible reasons under consideration.
One is the KIT oncogene and the other is MEN (Multiple Endocrinological
Neoplasia) genetics.  It may actually be that both exist in out ferrets.
The change in the proportion of such genetics from just two decades ago
when such markings were barely ever seen and neither were adrenal
neoplasia or insulinoma very often seen at all is huge.
 
Prevention: there IS work on-going on prevention of adrenal disease, and
on delaying onset for those who get it.  The things which under study
are:
 
- enough darkness (this is not just dimness but full darkness for at
  least 14 hours in every 24 hour period)
- Lupron Depot injections in the Spring to alter the LH levels
  beneficially
- Melatonin implants or given as 1 mg orally around the time of dusk in
  winter.
 
BTW, among humans a number of hormonal related malignancies decrease in
rate with people who are very physically active.  They can still happen,
but the rate is lower, for some very substantially so.  Exercise is good
for a great many health aspects so keep those fuzzies active!
[Posted in FML issue 4665]