Joan wrote:
>I have smelled adrenal disease on some of mine. I can describe it as
>a singed,or burnt odor about their skin.

Yes, BUT...

(and I DO note here that Joan did NOT this is definitive but I have
run into others who said so)

The but is that some other causes of fur loss can also produce this
odor. One of our crew got the same smell when he would have bad
allergies (and then it would get an added "off" smell when he'd get a
secondary skin infection, so it might be more a scent that indicates
a strong dermal component to whatever is going on.

I've also heard of some people mentioning the increased musk smell and
the changes to that, but those also can occur for alternative reasons,
so SMELL IS USEFUL BUT NOT DEFINITIVE.

On the other hand, I used to be really good at smelling malignancies --
not like some dogs who are about as useful as some medical tests if
properly trained for some spotting according to an article in the last
3 or 4 years. That is a sort of "off" sweet scent till it becomes
pronounced. I haven't been able to do that for years, but I know it
can be done. We even had a vet go into one of our ferrets earlier than
he normally would have done based partially on what I could smell back
then and her carcinoma came out in time for her to have another 5 and
1/2 years ahead of her. Now, I did NOT think the smell was definitive,
but I did think it was way too suggestive to take any chances, so
again -- useful but not definitive.

That kind of has to be emphasized because I've heard of some ferrets
taken to surgery based only on smell who turned out to be completely
healthy.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 6254]