I could use some extra opinions on a situation I have with my ferret,
Pepper.  He's a MF silver, about 3-1/2 years old.  In January of this year,
he had an operation for a suspected blockage.  He'd managed to pass the
foam he'd eaten, but the vet saw his left adrenal was enlarged and hard.
She removed it and it tested as having adrenal disease but no cancer.
 
After the surgery, he bounced back quickly and obviously felt better than
before (I hadn't noticed, it happened so gradually).  He had been trying to
mate with one of my spayed females and I was wondering if *she* might have
had some hormone problems that triggered the behavior in Pepper and in
retrospect, I realized it must have been due to the adrenal disease.  He had
no fur loss at all at this time, but the fur shaved off his stomach hasn't
grown back fully (he has some tufts here and there).  He was fine until this
summer.  Now he's thin, his hair is thinning on his shoulders, he's more
oily than usual but his fur seems dry.  He doesn't look good to me.  Most
remarkably, he's back to trying to mate with Gypsy, worse than ever!  It
does seem to go in spells, though.  My other ferrets lost a lot of fur due
to the heat, but he looks ratty compared to them.  One vet thought the fur
loss on the shoulders was due to allergy and told me to give him Lipiderm
to help the skin.  It seemed to have no effect.  I took him to another vet
and she did bloodwork but said she could feel no masses and didn't think he
had adrenal problems.
 
The bloodwork came back within normal limits, but his alkaline phosphates
and liver globulin were on the low side.  Should I have the Tennessee panel
done?  What could cause low phosphates and liver globulin?  Could he have
something other than adrenal problems?  Is it possible that the blood work
would have been different if I'd had it done when he was most actively
trying to mate (he hasn't done it as much the last few days)?
 
I don't want to push for an operation if he doesn't need one, but I also
don't want to wait until his adrenal turns cancerous before I do something.
I'd really appreciate a few vet opinions.
--Barb--
[Posted in FML issue 2404]