Hi!  I have been lurking since september.My ferrets threatened to nibble on
my toes untill I wrote to you and introduced them.  Dee is my 6 y.o. female
who has a fettish for cleaning your eye brows followed by washing your face.
Ember is our 5 y.o.  female, the first product of ferret math after all we
needed a playmate for Dee :).  Harley is our 6 month old rowdy boy.  All
three our big fans of Capt.  Casey!  Harley wants to be just like him when
he grows up.
 
The real reason I'm writing tonight is to share what is going on with our
little girl Dee.
 
In February we had a small mast cell tumor removed from her right shoulder.
At that time the vet and I noticed the hair on her tail was thinning.  There
were no other symtoms (still eating and dooking like crazy).  Dr. Honeycutt
(my vet, boss,friend and all around good person) started thinking adrenal
disease then , but we decided to watch her for a while since there was
nothing else going on.  Well about 2 weeks ago the little fart decided the
thin her hair out a little more (no bald spots), seems a bit more itchy than
the other ferrets(no fleas), and is loosing some muscle mass.  Dr h and I
were pretty sure she had adrenal disease.  Dr. H said she would feel better
if we sent blood off to the University of Tenn. for a more accurate
diagnosis since Dee has never has any swelling of her vulva, no real bald
spots just thin hair,and is at an age were ferrets do loose some of there
muscle mass.  She didn't want to put Dee through surgery at her age if it
wasn't necissary.  The blood work is run on the third week of every month so
we just got the sample to them in time to be in this month's testing and it
did come back this week say Dee has hyperadrenals.  She is schedualed for
surgery this coming wensday.  I'm glad I work for the vet doing the surgery
so I can baby her afterwards.  I think I'll make Annie(the other assistant)
hold her while Dr.H puts her under so Dee doesn't think i'm a mean mom :(.
The ferrets have always loved going to work with me, hope this doesn't
change after the surgery.
 
I'm sorry this post is so long but I hope it helps someone like all of the
stories i have read on the FML have helped me.  I'll write after the surgery
and let you know how things go.
 
Thanks for being here,
Christy
[Posted in FML issue 1915]