I just want to say *thanks* to everyone who responded about Mittens' hair
loss.  We read the ferret adrenal disease FAQ that night and took her to a
vet right away.  Unfortunately, she does have adrenal disease.  The vet also
noticed that her lymph nodes were enlarged and was concerned about her
possibly having lymphosarcoma.  He was unable to do anything other that a
blood test so he has referred us to another vet, who we have an appointment
with later this week.  We read the lymphosarcoma FAQ 2fgtl.,i8[= [speaking
of Mittens, that was her contribution to this letter :) ] and we are really
concerned about Mittens' future.  The more we read the more it seems that
these are somewhat common problems in ferrets.  It breaks our hearts to
think of our baby, and so many other fuzzies out there, having to go through
this.
 
We are wondering if anyone here has any experience with vets in the
Provo/Salt Lake City, Utah area?  We are hoping the vet we have an
appointment with is good-- his name is Dr. Martin Orr, practicing in Salt
Lake at the Bird and Exotic Pet Hospital, has anyone here heard of him?  We
were not impressed with the other vet she saw this past weekend.  I asked
the receptionist if he had experience dealing with diseases and possibly
surgeries in ferrets and told her we thought she had adrenal disease, and
she said he did, so we made the appt.  Then at the appointment I asked the
vet himself if he had experience with these things in ferrets.  He said yes,
but that if he ran into something he couldn't handle, he would refer her to
Dr. Orr.  He kept her there for the afternoon to do blood tests.  Then the
next day when he got the results, he told us he couldn't do the surgery and
referred us to Dr. Orr.  I wish they had told us that to begin with, we
would have taken her to Dr. Orr in the first place and not had to wait so
long to get her an appointment.  The test didn't tell us anything we didn't
already pretty much know.  Then to top it all off, when we brought her home,
we noticed dried blood on her hand-- they had clipped her nails and they
clipped one way too short.  I couldn't believe it.  I don't know why they
would need to clip her claws anyway, she was sedated for the blood test.  I
just hope she was asleep and didn't feel anything.  She seems ok now, her
paw doesn't seem to be bothering her.  As far as her illness goes, she
doesn't seem to feel sick at all, which is good.  The good news is, we had
Jasmine checked also and the vet said she seemed perfectly healthy.  We
haven't seen any symptoms in her so hopefully she is fine.  I am a little
concerned about the possibility of ferrets who live together also later
having lymphosarcoma, if Mittens has it is there anything we can do to help
protect Jasmine?
 
Well, sorry this is so long.  Thanks everyone for listening.  If anyone has
any experiences with this that might be helpful, please feel free to email
us at:
 
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Thanks again.
[Posted in FML issue 1875]