To Margo:
>My little guy has cushings disease.  He has had this for years.
 
Margo - your ferret has adrenal disease, not Cushing's disease.  Cushing's
disease is a completely different disease which is the result of cortisone
excess, and is primarily seen in dogs.  Adrenal disease in ferrets is the
result of estrogen excess!!!  Have your vet do some research here!!!  (Sorry
for the exclamation points, but I do get tired of vets misdiagnosing
hyperestrogenism in ferrets...)
 
>This past week he seems full of fluid, like he would pop if sutck with a
>pin.  YECH!
 
This is a bad sign, and suggests the possibility of heart disease (most
likely) or possibly an abdominal tumor.  Something that your vet should
consider is the possibility of an adrenal tumor causing both the signs of
adrenal disease and the fluid accumulation in the abdomen.  I wouldn't wait
on this one - my suggestion is a thoracic X-ray to rule out the possibility
of heart disease.  If that checks out OK, then I would suggest taking a
small amount of the fluid out of the abdomen and sending it off to be
analyzed - sometimes we can get a diagnosis from the aspirated fluid.  If no
tumor is diagnosed from the fluid, then an exploratory surgery is in order.
 
>He seems fine (knock wood) otherwise...eating...bowel...same personality.
>I was wondering if there is a procedure that my vet could do to drain some
>fluid.  And if there is, I don't know if I should let it be done because he
>doesn't seem to be bothered with it yet.  I am.  I'm afraid it might
>trigger a bad chain of event...
 
We have to find out the cause of the fluid.  From my experience, without
some intervention at this point, he will go down quickly, and with this
amount of fluid (about to burst if you stick a pin in him, in your own
words), we need to do something fast.  Don't wait - see your vet as soon as
possible.
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP              Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
[Posted in FML issue 1445]