>From:    Rebecca Erven <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Urinary Problem - Need Help Please
>
>Waldo's been x-rayed for stones or blockages, and there wasn't anything
>there.  Now my vet wants to get a blood test to rule out adrenal disease .
>My question is, how likely is this to be adrenal disease...
 
Pretty likely: they're both well-known symptoms of adrenal disease.  The
adrenal problem can cause inflammation in the ferret's prostate gland,
which in turn causes the problems urinating.  In fact, if your vet can
even feel the prostate, and especially if s/he can push a greenish sludge
out through the ferret's penis, it's almost certainly the prostate that's
causing the urinary problem.
 
There's a lot more information about adrenal disease in general, and
the involvement of the prostate in particular, in the Adrenal FAQ at
 
http://www.ferretcentral.org/faq/med/adrenal.html
 
Note that there was a fair bit of discussion about lupron in the FML
recently which I haven't yet included in the FAQ.  If you'd like to
read that as well, I'd suggest searching back issues at
 
http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html
 
Best wishes to you and Waldo,
 
--
- Pam Greene, Ferret FAQ maintainer
new! ===>   Ferret Central <http://www.ferretcentral.org/>   <=== new!
            or ftp://ftp.optics.rochester.edu/pub/pgreene/
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[Posted in FML issue 2286]