Something which has not come up in conversation is that there are silent
adrenal growths that happen sometimes.  Over the years we've had three or
four (guessing) ferrets who were completely without symptoms but who had
adrenal growths found on testing, or at surgery for something else.
Meeteetse has a silent one right now.  Over the years I have read about
others in the same positions, or whose adrenal growths were not spotted
until they literally were dying -- at which point symptoms began, have also
heard of individuals who had adrenal growths found at necropsy for deaths
from OTHER causes who never had any symptoms or any problems despite the
growths being present.  As far as I can tell no one knows how many ferrets
have SILENT adrenal growths since so few necropsies are done (though
numbers encountered accidentally by vets looking at other things would
possibly be very interesting compared to population sizes, and a discussion
of the good and bad points of such numbers would likely make sense).
Numbers for acute presentations are something I'd expect that vets would
be likely to have in their records once some have the time to do actual
record reviews.  Ashling had an acute onset, and so did Warp.  Don't know
if or how one could possibly separate a rapid onset from one that had
been quietly growing and just then showed symptoms in a marked fashion
(sometimes even just about at death).  Vets, any comments?  In humans it's
been found that slipped discs are much more common than people had known,
but about 75% of them never cause any problems, so one interesting question
becomes what aspect separate a silent one from one which does cause
difficulties.  One percentage which might need to eventually be known is
how many adrenals stay silent and do NOT pose a health hazard.  Is it zero,
or might it even be a high percentage as with human slipped discs?  Many of
us humans also are walking around with growths that it simply doesn't pay
to remove because the likelihood of those growths causing problems is about
nil, and sometimes to risk of surgery is a very real concern.  It would
possibly be useful in the future to know when to ignore or wait when a
silent adrenal neoplasia is found accidentally if a vet is not already
inside the cavity.  Would these numbers perhaps be more easily found in
vet records than some other needed numbers than have come under discussion
so far?
 
Adrenal growths are not a blame situation because nothing is known.
(Neglect is a blame situation in and of itself.) If it is true that neglect
situations lead to even higher rates then that might have some interesting
directions in which to look, but it certainly doesn't mean that all adrenal
neoplasias reflect neglect as the person who garnered flames pointed out.
Don't ignore a possible hint just because the words aren't pleasant when
rewritten in a different direction.  (It's kind of like the old admonition
that "Absence of proof is not proof of absence".) All that any of us can do
is to be frank, to take what precautions we can, do our best, and listen to
those who run into either more adrenal neoplasias or fewer of them to try
to see what things (among a multitude) might be different.  That gives
hypotheses but it doesn't give answers.  For answers we need to put our
money where out mouths are and donate to places like the Morris Animal
Foundation (1-800-243-2345), the AMC, and research projects at veterinary
schools noting prominently that the monies are to be used to help fund
veterinary research which will benefit ferrets.  (If donating enough you
can even say which diseases are of personal interest.)  If the monies
aren't there then the work won't be done.  Simple as that.  People will
send proposals but the funds won't exist to okay them.  Llama people, cat
people, dog people, and horse people all give a lot ( a real lot) toward
improving the veterinary care of their critters.  Ferret people need to
do the same.  That's some of what it takes to be part of the solution.
[Posted in FML issue 3107]