To Mike and Jessica:
 
>I am glad to still have Jessica, last summer she lost the hair on her
>hind end, she was almost totally bald, the vet told me it was the adrenal
>thing and that she would not be around long enough to even waste the money
>on vaccination for her.  A few months later she grew her winter coat as
>thick as ever and she still has hair, is this normal??
 
        Mike - let me be blunt - your vet doesn't seem to know much about
ferrets, and if what you recount is acurate - doesn't seem to care much.  I
suggest another vet may be in order.
 
        Regarding hair loss - we often see a cyclic pattern of exaggerated hair
loss in ferrets with adrenal disease.  Some lose hair over several seasons and
it gets progressively worse, but always seems to grow back.  This seems to
attest to the fact that you see all levels of estrogen secretion in these
animals - perhaps the ones that secrete lower levels have a cyclic hair loss
pattern, while the ones that secrete large amounts go bald and stay bald.
 
        Regardless - adrenal disease can be treated surgically in most cases -
and the animals go on to live a normal life span.  I have done surgery on two
of my ferrets at or around the age of six - one lived another year and died of
unrelated causes - the second is just cruising along at seven....
 
--
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 1203]