To Brooke Nelson:
 
>He had his right adrenal gland removed back in August and has grown all of
>his fur back already.  Well, he HAD grown it all back!  Just now I noticed
>that he is losing it AGAIN!!!  It is only at the base of his tail and he
>didn't lose it there when he had his "adrenal problem".
 
I wouldn't panic just yet.  Hair loss on the tail can happen during coat
changes and during times of stress.  If he starts losing the hair on the
rest of his body, then we'll worry.  The regrowing hair won't fall out, if
it does until it reaches it's full length - estrogen only affects the hair
follicles in the "resting"resting stage of the cycle.
 
Remember that about 15% of the adrenal problems are bilateral - however, we
have much better luck (and are much bolder now) with bilateral adrenal
surgeries than just one year ago - I would certainly recommend it when
necessary when only a year ago I was advising against it.  We are complinig
quite a bit more data on adrenal disease in ferrets as time goes by....
 
BTW, the adrenal panel at the Univ. of Tennessee School of Vet Med
Endocrinology Department was discussed this week in the Journal of the AVMA,
so hopefully more vets will be adding it to their diagnostic regimens in
cases of ferret adrenal-associated endocrinopathy....
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP              Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
[Posted in FML issue 1695]