Norris - This is a long one, so I'll try to be brief....
 
>Just over a year ago, Gunther had his spleen removed.  The vet said he
>looked at the adrenals while he was in there and that they looked fine.
 
        They probably did at that point...
 
>A few months after the surgery Gunther started losing hair up the tail
>and over the butt to his lower back (his shaved stomach, and neck
>remained bare).  Also he wasn't eating well.  We took him back to the
>vet.  They said his abdomen was fine and that it was probably just the
>shock of the operation.
 
    That would be unusual, so long after the operation.  At any rate, the
most common site of hair loss during times of stress is on the tail - I
start to think about adrenal disease when the hair proceeds forward of the
tail....
 
>He now has hair on the tip and top of his tail, a bare patch in between.
>The patch on his neck grew in, but his stomach hair is still sparse.  He
>doesn't have much in the way of undercoat at all.  Lately we've noticed
>that he's losing more hair over the shoulders and on the top of his head.
>The tops of his rear feet do seem to be more bare than his front feet.
 
    This really sounds like the pattern that is associated with adrenal
disease.
 
>Also over the past year his weight never stablized.  Sometimes he gains
>some, then he seems to loose it again.  You can see his butt and shoulder
>bones pretty clearly.
 
    Well, the are a lot of causes of weight loss, but with the bones
showing, he seems to have lost muscle mass - something that we can see with
adrenal disease, also....
 
>He is more aggressive with Ozzie (but never Nico) when they are in the
>cage.  He chews on her ears until she squeals.  He spends much more time
>licking the butts of both our little girl ferrets.  He now likes to rub his
>belly on rounded objects and at least once it looked like he was trying to
>mount Ozzie (yes, he's fixed).
 
    We can also see this type of reproductive behavior change in ferrets
with adrenal disease.  One other thing to consider at this point would be
the possibility of a retained testicle that was never removed at the
initial neutering....
 
>His belly does NOT seem to be the slightest bitdistended.
 
    I wouldn't expect it to be with adrenal disease...
 
>He's been to 2 vets in the past month, and had one blood test (both new
>vets since we just moved).  The test came up pretty much normal.
 
    The typical blood tests will be normal with adrenal disease.  The only
test worth running if you are really looking a the status of the adrenals
is the panel offered by the Department of Endocrinology, University of
Tennessee School of Veterinary Medicine....
 
>Could the stress of the move cause the hair growth and weight gain to
>stop, and the change in behavior?  It was a hot summer and we don't
>have air conditioning, he certainly didn't have any incentive to grow
>hair.  Should I wait until it gets cold and see if that stimulates
>hair, weight, and energy?
 
    I don't think so.  I think most vets would probably just go in and look
atthe adrenals, or at least run the Adrenal Panel from UT.....
 
>Should the adrenals have looked questionable during the splenectomy if
>there was a problem?
 
    No - that was a year ago - a lot can happen in a year....
 
    I'd start pursuing the possibility of adrenal disease at this point.  Is
your new vet comfortable with ferrets, and would he/she recognize the signs
of adrenal-associated endocrinopathy - if not, maybe you can find one (you
may have to drive a distance) with more ferret experience....
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP
Dept. of Vet Path, AFIP
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Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
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[Posted in FML issue 1339]