Hi everybody (human and ferret, alike)!  I am new to this listserv and have
been lurking for several days.  The posts are quite lengthy so I hope I have
the time to keep up with them.  I am enjoying the funny stories and feeling
sad for those ferrets who are sick.
 
Well, I have two ferrets myself.  They are named Antony and Lexie
(Alexandria).  Originally, I had Antony and Cleo(patra) but it turned out
Cleo came to me with distemper and was quite sick.  Sadly, I had to put her
to sleep to put her out of her misery.  A few months later I got Lexie (in
keeping with the Ancient Egypt theme on names).  Currently, Antony is 6 1/2
(he'll be 7 in Jan.) and Lexie will be turning six in Sept.  They share our
home with my husband, me, two cats (Andre and Enzo) and parakeet, Merlin.
 
[log in to unmask] asked about adrenal gland disease and since I've been through
that with Antony I wanted to respond.  When Antony had adrenal disease the
first time he was 3 yrs old.  I was advised by my vet to take him to a
specialist in Westchester, IL (Midwest Bird and Exotic Animal Hospital...
there I've made my plug for a great group of vets).  The vet we saw there,
Dr. Susan Brown, did surgery on him and removed the affected adrenal gland.
He had lost a lot of fur by this time although he still ate and played
normally.  I was told that ferrets can live up to two years untreated with
this problem but if he had surgery he had a (and this is from memory and may
be incorrect) 80% chance of going on to have a normal life span.  Within six
months his fur grew back in although it never became as soft as his original
coat.  Almost exactly, three years later (this past Feb) I noticed his coat
thinning again.  A different vet at the same place said he had no question
that it was the adrenal problem again.  The problem is ferrets need an
adrenal gland to survive and it is very difficult to remove a tumor without
removing too much of the gland and since he's had it twice even if they
could do this the tumor would probably redevelop.  Since he is 6 1/2 and
could live to 8 1/2 with the tumor the vet advised against surgery.  The
normal life span according to these vets is 5-7 years with the occasional
ferret reaching 10-12 yrs of age and the unfortunate one who make it only to
3 or so.
 
As for how to tell, usually I loss of coat is a pretty sure determiner.  The
vet can also feel around the adrenal gland areas and feel a lump.  I don't
know if x-rays are commonly done but that seems to be another option.  Oh,
by the way, when Antony went through his surgery the vet found two large
hairballs in his stomach... very dangerous.  So the hair falling of his body
was entering his mouth!  So this time around I'm giving him kittymalt
hairball remover every other day!
 
I didn't mean to be so long-winded.  I hope the information I've provided is
helpful and I look forward to getting to know listserv members.
 
Ellen Kaplan Goffin
[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1676]