Hello FMLer's!
 
I have a question for you.  My three year old MF sprite has a swollen vulva.
This was first noticed a week ago and the swelling has increased.  I spoke
to my vet, who is very knowledgable about ferrets, and we have a couple of
treatment options in mind.  First, wait another week and see what happens.
Second, if there is no improvement, give her a hormone shot to see if that
will bring her out of heat.  Third, if the shot doesn't work, give
antibiotics to see if she has an urinary tract infection.  We haven't ruled
out adrenal yet, but she shows no hair loss, no funny odor, and no
significant behavioral changes.
 
This is my question(s).  Can heat resulting from leftover ovarian tissue be
effectively managed through hormone shots?  The surgery to check for
remaining tissue is an option, but from what I know this might not result in
anything more than looking and finding nothing in which case the surgery
would have been unnecessary.  If all the above options are taken and nothing
helps, will we probably need to do exploratory surgery to check for an
adrenal gland problem anyway?
 
Any help or advice from anyone would be greatly appreciated.  I don't want
to put her through surgery if I don't have to, but will if that is the only
option.
 
Thank you in advance for your help!
 
Rachel and the four entropy accelerators
[Posted in FML issue 1896]