Wanted to say a couple of words about adrenal.  Up front- I don't have any
personal experience with adrenal disease but have read a lot about it and
have worked with shelters and vets dealing with it.  What follows is my own
understanding of it, but I have done my best to be correct in my info.
 
My understanding is that adrenal disease is the over production of adrenal
steroids.  I did not think you treat this with more steroids.  Perhaps the
steroid treatment is refering to the use of Lysodren (mitotane) for adrenal
disease.  This drug supresses the production of adrenal hormones (steroids).
And it only supresses them while it is being given, once you stop the drug,
the symptoms return.  It is not a cure, it is a palliative treatment.
 
Surgery is the recommended option for adrenal disease.  It is recommended in
the book _Ferrets, Rabbits and Rodents_ by Hillyer and Quesenberry and also
advocated by Dr. Williams at a recent lecture he gave.  If the ferret is
otherwise in good health, they should recovery from surgery rather quickly.
I have had ferrets who have undergone abdominal surgery and were walking the
day of the surgery.  Also the quoted figure of $500-700 seems high to me.
Most surgeries for this, in my own experience, run from $200-300.  This
might be a factor in location.  Surgery is a cure for adrenal disease.
 
I would hate that this high figure would discourage anyone from seeking
treatment.  If nothing else, check out a local veterinarian college if you
can.  They are often considerably cheaper than clinics and do wonderful work.
 
Also, if you do have to preform a bi-lateral adrenalectomy (removal of both
glands), then steroid treatment is in order.  Steroids are necessary to keep
the electrolyte balance in the patient, without them the patient dies.  And
yes, long term high dose steroids can cause osteoathritis.  But with lower
dosing, not given daily, this problem is not as large a concern than if the
patient is receiving high/mulitple doses on a daily basis.
 
My personal opinions of chemo are to pass on it.  The whole idea behind
chemo is to poison the tumor before you poison the patient.  This is true
across all species.  Chemo is poison.  The theory behind its use is
this-cancer cells grow faster than normal cells, therefor they should uptake
more chemo drugs than normal cells, thus killing them before the normal
cells reach a fatal stage.  But you sacrifice a huge quality of life with
this treatment, as it also kills off most of the components of blood in the
process, making the patient very weak.
 
And as for chemo, I am not sure about how it would work on non-cancerous
tumors.  Can anyone tell us about that?  A good portion of adrenal tumors
are not cancerous.  I once heard them likened to brain tumors, it doesn't
have to be cancer to be bad, just because of where they are located.
 
I would also recommend the above mentioned book, as it gives formulas for
drug dosages in ferrets.  And it has a good amount of info on Cushing's like
disease in ferrets.
 
I look forward to seein the compilation of case histories on this topic.
 
[HM]
[Posted in FML issue 2152]