I've had a number of people participate in the adrenal survey on my web
site and thought I would share some of the results here.
 
Please note that with only 52 responses to date, this is hardly
representative of the millions of ferrets out there, but what the heck,
it's interesting anyway.
 
Out of 52 responses, there were 26 males and 26 females.  41 of them were
from Marshall Farms.  That's no surprise since the majority of ferrets in
the U.S. are probably from MF.  So, this is not indicative that MF ferrets
have adrenal problems while ferrets from other breeders don't.
 
The age when first diagnosed was pretty spread out with the most (12) going
to 5-6 years and close behind (9) and tied for second place was 2-3 yrs,
3-4 yrs and 4-5 yrs.
 
Insulinoma was the most common concurrent disease.  Hair loss (42) and a
swollen vulva (14) in females was the most common symptoms.  Once again,
no big surprise.
 
The vast majority of cases were diagnosed symptomatically (42) with only 9
discovered during exploratory surgery and 8 by the U. of Tenn. adrenal
panel.
 
Most (45) chose surgery as the form of treatment while only 11 tried drugs,
mostly Lysodren (9).
 
In 30 cases, the left adrenal was the gland affected and removed, and
surprisingly, at least to me, both were removed more often (9) than just
the right (8).
 
Sadly, the majority (24 vs. 20) of cases were not cured by the chosen
treatment.  In cases where it was curative, even if only temporarily, the
symptoms subsided within 1-3 months.
 
There were a few other questions asked, but I won't bore you with all the
details.  If you're interested, you can check them out on the
adrenal/insulinoma web site.  See my signature for the URL.
 
For the ferrets,
Mike
 
* Michael F. Janke, [log in to unmask]
* Secretary, South Florida Ferret Club and Rescue, Inc.
*
* Visit our shelter's web site: http://www.miamiferret.org
* Visit the Adrenal/Insulinoma web site: http://www.miamiferret.org/FHC
[Posted in FML issue 2474]