To Judy Gallipeau:
 
        Another surgical fallacy - you can't just look at an adrenal and say
it's normal - doesn't matter how good a surgeon you are.  I often see
proliferative adrenal lesions in adrenals that look grossly normal.
 
        If you can conivnce them to run the test - it'll take a month to get
the test results back due to the long time it takes to prepare the material -
this will tell you not only if the estrogens are elevated, but also if they are
coming from the adrenals (as several pre-hormones from the adrenal are being
tested for).
 
        You shouldn't be at your wits end, because your vets haven't done all
of the diagnostics available yet.  REmember - the most common source of
elevated estrogens in ferrets is adrenal disease - but aside from loking at the
adrenals and saying "Hey, they don't look too big", this aspect really hasn't
been investigated yet.
 
--
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP              Department of Veterinary Pathology
[log in to unmask]               Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
[log in to unmask]             Washington, D.C.  20306-6000
(202) 782-2600/2602
[Posted in FML issue 1201]