Heard from a friend of Steve's that someone supplied a copy of "Ferrets"
magazine to "Odd Todd" of a comic strip named "Laid Off" and that
appeared in the strip.  We've never seen it, so will have to find it.
 
>2. Hormones excessively enlarging the prostate (in males) causing the
>prostate to press against the urinary tract resulting in restriction of
>urine flow which leads to urinary tract infections, which in turn, can
>lead to more serious bladder & kidney infections, renal failure.  (I'm
>not a vet, there's actually more to than just this.)
 
Don't shortchange yourself!  Urine can back up from the bladder into the
ureters and above into the kidneys, spreading infection.
 
Oh, prostatic cysts sometimes can occur and those are harder to handle
than just an inflamed prostate.
 
If folks want to learn more I recently did a search and re-posted a Jerry
Murray post (which is in the FML archives) in the Massage section at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-List.  The post addresses a
couple of more complex situations than the norm in which removing the
affected adrenal clears things up.
 
>In the above mentioned quick growth case..... THERE WAS NO HAIR LOSS AT
>ALL.  The only symptom was a slight change in behavior...
 
We have one whose first symptom (both times since Sev was among the about
15% who wind up with both) whose first symptom was holding down our
youngest ferret and repeatedly urinating on his head, neck, and shoulders.
Another had her first symptom be treating my toes like kits.  Have had
ones whose adrenal growths had no symptoms and were found during surgery
for other things, and one who had what LOOKED like the fur loss from
adrenal -- almost classic -- but instead she had no adrenal growths and
never did (Did path on them after her hypertrophic cardiomyopathy -- the
less common form -- took her.).  Sometimes diagnosing is an art form...
 
BTW, increasing pear shape can also indicate adrenal disease, as can fat
deposits in unusual areas such as in the thorax where they are sometimes
confused with tumors in older ferrets and can lead to advice to destroy
ferrets who actually have a chance with proper approaches.  (Thoracic
tumors do occur, even in older ferrets, but they aren't common.)
 
>Has anyone had experience with a ferret with an enlarged spleen, and
>what was that experience?
 
Hi, Charlie!  Long time!  If they get too large we have them come out
since carrying around a huge and heavy organ than also makes it hard to
pass things to the descending colon can badly impair life style.  We have
not had one with an uneven margin or other danger signs but in such cases
we'd have it out.  Often a run of antibiotics will help shrink and spleen
that is enlarged since many are in response to a smoldering low grade
infection.  We have not had one rupture, but it can happen.  If your vet
feels that gentle massage to reduce the spleen's size may be useful at
some point you can learn that and it has helped some of our's through the
decades.
[Posted in FML issue 3805]