**The advice dispensed by myself in reference to FML postings is not meant
to supplant the advice of veterinarians who are in charge of the patient.
If the patient is not currently under the care of a veterinarian, the client
is recommended to take their ferret to one.**
 
>From:    "Aimee Hettinger (BIO)" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: ferrets sick
 
Adrenal disease in ferrets can be treated either medically using a drug
called Lysodren or surgery.  Most vets prefer the surgical option since we
can, in a lot but not all cases, cure the ferret.  Insulinoma is probably
best treated medically.  New evidence suggests that even large solitary
insulinoma tumors (which used to be treated surgically) have microscopic
spread throughout the pancreas that will need to be treated medically.
 
>From:    Denis Dubois <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: surgery post-poned - lysodren side-effects?
>Whidbey's second adrenal/exporatory surgery has been post-poned at the
>surgeon's suggestion.  The pre-op blood work came back with really high
>levels of the liver enzyme ALT.
 
I can see skin lesions from the effects of hyper adrenal disease even in
ferrets being on lysodren.  Side effects of Lysodren include: nausea,
vomiting, hypoglycemia and anorexia.
 
From a surgery point of view, Lysodren also shrinks the affected adrenal
gland making it difficult to determine which adrenal gland is abnormal
during surgery.
 
>From:    "Tracy L. Tunnison" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Question for the vets
 
You can try the smallest dog size (it is hard to overdose).  I have not seen
any studies showing whether maldigestion or malabsorption is a big problem
in ferrets so it is tough to say whether Prozyme will help.  Also some of
the fecal digestion test are notoriously inaccurate and give false positive
and negative results quite frequently.
 
>From:    Mel Hyner <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: weight loss & teeth
 
Tartar and plaque build-up is common.  Regular brushing might help.  In the
case of broken tips of teeth, there really is not a lot you can due.  I have
down a type of root canal on ferret canine teeth with some good results.
 
>From:    CHARLES E FOX <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Question for Vets
>According to an article in the 1997 edition of Critters USA (page 20),
>ferrets are susceptible to canine bordetella.
 
Ferrets can get Bordetella, one of the causes of canine kennel cough.  It
does not seem to be a big problem in ferrets however.  The current
recommendation is not to vaccinate them since the effectiveness of the
vaccine is unknown in ferrets, you still run the risk of a vaccine reaction,
and they do not seem to get clinical disease from the infection often.
 
 
Somewhere in the sending of the normal ferret panel values a portion of the
second progesterone description was placed at the end of the previous line.
Those two lines should read:
Progesterone nmol/L          2.2    0.9     3.4       0.8       3.18
17-OH Progesterone nmol/L    0.2    0.1     0.3       0.1       3.18
 
Mike Dutton, DVM, DABVP
Weare Animal Hospital
Weare, NH.
[Posted in FML issue 1656]