I have been using oral melatonin for a few years for my adrenal
ferrets. It's a hit and miss thing, just as the melatonin implants,
Lupron or Desi implants are, it either works or it doesn't based on
the individual ferret.

Why oral, you may ask? Our vet, while ferret-knowledgeable, does not do
that much business with ferrets - so is unwilling to get and keep on
hand either the melatonin implants or lupron, and deslorilen implants
are out of the question.

With the oral melatonin, each brand is different so what works for one
may not work for another. Also, you need to give the dose around the
same time each and every day for it to be effective. I have read that
the "best" time to give it is 7-9 hours after sunrise. However, I have
learned that as long as you give it around the same time each day
(whether morning or night) if it's going to help, it will. And I
recently found out that sometimes you need to combine different brands
for it to work. I have this one ferret who has been mostly naked for
the past six months (he just had sparse fur on his face and legs and
around the lower part of his body). I had been giving him melatonin
from a pill for a few months, which didn't seem to work. Then for the
heck of it, I added in a partial dose from a bio-available liquid and
lo and behold, he is almost completely covered in fur after only a few
weeks on the new dose.

Giving oral melatonin can work, but you have to work at it sometimes
to get results.

[Posted in FML 6983]