**The advice dispensed by myself in reference to FML postings is not meant
to supplant the advice of veterinarians who are in charge of the patient.
If the patient is not currently under the care of a veterinarian, the client
is recommended to take their ferret to one.**
 
>From:    "Gwen M. Daley" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: hair loss
>My little white child is now my little pink child - she's lost all of her
>long guard hairs, and is covered only in soft white underfur.
 
I agree with your vet s possible two diagnoses; although if it is adrenal
disease, I would opt for early diagnosis and treatment even if the ferret is
healthy.
 
>From:    Anthony Lucas <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Vet Q from vet
>Could any of the vets out there tell me how reliable neuro exams are in
>ferrets...
 
Neuro exams are not easy on these kids.  I think I do a good job on
distinguishing grossly hypo- from normal from grossly hyper-, but subtleties
are not easily discernible.
 
I find that the patellar, biceps, triceps tendon responses are equivocal at
best.  The postural reflexes seem to be more accurate to me.  Hemi-walks,
hemi-hops etc.  are hard to perform on most ferrets.
 
>From:    Sheena Staples <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Butler's Ear ... vets??
>A portion of Butler's ear has gone gangrenous, and needs to be removed.  The
>lab still hasn't replied about the pus sample we sent in.  My vet can find
>no foreign object in the wound that might be causing the abcess to react
 
I would remove the ear and have a relatively non-gangrenous portion biopsied
to see if an underlying tumor (such as squamous cell carcinoma is the
culprit).
 
>From:    Kim VanderLaan <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Marshall Farms Ferret
>I am responding to Alicia's (Ferret Wise Shelter) post about Marshall Farms
>ferrets.
 
At this time, there are no firm conclusions that early neutering leads to
adrenal disease.  There was a report a couple years ago in the Journal of
the American Veterinary Medical Association that hypothesized that early
neutering may be a cause.  As you have read over the last few days, other
countries that do early neuters (such as Canada) do not encounter the
problem.  Dr. Karen Rosenthal, a ferret vet at the Animal Medical Center in
New York City, now believes that early neuter plays little if any role and
thinks that genetics plays the biggest role.  I personally have seen older
neuters have adrenal disease.  What is needed is more studies (and they are
going on right now) but the studies are not easy to perform and get
statistically valid results.  Bob Church explained how there are so many
variables and biases in our population study that any conclusions are
difficult.
 
Now that I have said my piece about other people s opinions, here is mine on
adrenal disease.  I think that what we now define as adrenal disease is
actually a variety of different adrenal diseases, each with a different
cause or causes.  Our knowledge at this point does not allow us to
differentiate between each subset of adrenal disease.  Just as years ago,
cancer meant a new growth somewhere, we now can define cancers down to type
and some are due to diet, genetics, environment, etc.  The reason for my
opinion is 1) the different symptoms that ferrets can exhibit, 2) the biopsy
results I receive back fall into three large and different categories, and
3) the adrenal gland is multilayered and produces, from separate types of
cells, numerous hormones and steroids.
 
Mike Dutton, DVM, DABVP
Weare Animal Hospital
Weare, NH, USA
[Posted in FML issue 1736]