I like a lot of what you wrote, Sukie.  I don't see as strong a genetic
connection as many people do, nor do I necessarily believe the "early
neutering" theory--especially because early neutering doesn't have negative
health effects in other species.
 
What I have seen--and there are no numbers to back this up, this is just
an observation, an intuition--is that adrenal disease, early and otherwise,
is much more common in ferrets from neglectful homes.  We have seen a few
early adrenals, and every one of them was from a home that kept them in
tiny rabbit cages lined with shavings, fed them almost nothing, kept them
in basements, etc, etc.  In other words, these ferrets got little to no
exercise, inadequate nutrition, no natural light, and probably drank
unclean water--or went without.  What's surprising is that they were alive.
One ferret from this category had a sister with her--who had insulinoma and
died.  They were very young, probably less than a year, no more than 1.5
(judging by teeth).  The adrenal case's vulva was the size of my thumb.
 
We have yet to see an early adrenal tumor in an otherwise healthy and
well-cared-for ferret.  Actually, most of the age-related adrenal cases
we've seen have also been ferrets in neglectful homes, though not all of
them.
 
So--if we're seeing more early adrenals, is this related to more awareness
of neglect, more ferrets turned in to shelters rather than left to die?
Or is there something that is common in the way neglected ferrets are kept
that is also becoming more common in the way many pet ferrets are kept?
 
There are age-related conditions in humans, such as diabetes and blood
sugar problems, that can appear much earlier--and *most* of the time it
appears earlier because of bad eating habits, lack of exercise, or a number
of other issues.  (No insult intended for those with diabetes, either
type!) Another example is heart disease, something humans are fairly prone
to--and we all know what increases *that* risk factor.  So, for ferrets,
it's adrenal tumors and insulinomas, I'd say, with age increasing the tumor
risk overall--and the more risk of tumors, the higher the chance of cancer.
My guess would be that some environmental factor (or combination of them)
accelerates the normal disease process--so that a ferret that might
normally develop adrenal tumors at age 7 will develop them at age 2.
 
I personally suspect it's a combination of factors, including diet and
exercise at the very least, and probably quite a few more.
 
Any other ideas?
 
Jen and the Crazy Business
Check out the updated web page!
http://home.maine.rr.com/tesseract
[Posted in FML issue 3099]