Tina asked:
>I knew that melatonin is used in the treatment of ferrets with
>adrenal disease. But I was just wondering what, if any effect
>(good or bad), melatonin might have on a ferret with insulanoma?
>Just curious. I've heard conflicting things. I just need some
>knowledgeable input here.

You have heard conflicting things because there have been conflicting
cases. Melatonin is involved in some OPPOSING pancreatic hormonal
results and it has not been sorted out how many melatonin is just in
noise for, how many melatonin may be useful for when there is
insulinoma, or how many melatonin may harm when there is insulinoma.
It's a new area of study.

Another area of inquiry is into things which present like insulinoma
but are not insulinoma.

There is also still the question whether ferrets who are exposed
to enough darkness to produce their own melatonin may have reduced
rates of insulinoma. (Ex: It is not unusual for rates of hormonal
malignancies to be reduced in those with certain types of blindness --
in fact, that observation is what first led to a number of
investigations of melatonin.)

Apologies for quoting myself to save time:
>Something new that interests me: we already have abundant evidence
>from many independent studies that when you add up too few hours with
>complete darkness combined with being neutered that adrenal tumors are
>more likely and that genetics also plays a role in that.  There is
>some new evidence that the osteoblasts (bone builders) in bone also
>send hormonal signals to the pancreas which result in increased
>insulin and increased responsiveness to insulin.  Karsenty et. al.
>of Columbia found that Osteocalcin which is produced by Osteoblasts
>increases insulin levels and responsiveness to insulin. So, bones join
>fat is having unexpected endocrinological interactions in a mouse
>study. The report is in the August 10th issue of Cell.  Now, besides
>the reduction in melatonin production (that itself results from
>increased light exposure) causing increases in LH production it also
>causes increases in FSH production.  FSH is under study for causing
>bone loss.  I find myself wondering if the body then works extra hard
>at replacing that bone, with resulting higher levels of circulating
>osteocalcin.  Should that be so then it might play a part in the two
>problems of adrenal disease and low blood sugar being seen together.

There additionally is the question of why oral melatonin tends to fail
to work any longer in a shorter time than implants, and why the body's
own melatonin produced in response to darkness seems to be even less
likely to become ineffective. Something is wrong in the formulations
and the delivery perhaps...

---

Next topic:

All of our ferrets, who do have their own room, put themselves to bed
in the cage but at different rates. Whizbang and Hilbert do it the most
(almost every night, though Hilbert has recently fallen in love with a
mailbox I got and modified, so his rate has decreased. Telemna, who has
a favorite spot under my desk is least likely to go in. Only one of the
others ever likes that spot but she adores it. Maybe 3/4 of the time
Morney and Hubble bunk under a trunk covered by a big black bath sheet
and I dig them out of there before i go to bed, but the rest of the
time they will go into the cage on their own. Hubble is more likely to
go into the cage when the beds are at their dirtiest in there, while
Morney has a preference for clean beds and will eschew the trunk if the
cage beds have been changed in the last 3 days or so. At times they
seek alternative sleeping spots like under the cage, behind the cage,
in the octopus tent, etc. They are more likely to use the cage if we
have the cage cover closed (the ramp still being accessible). BTW,
Telemna is more likely to use the cage for sleeping in the day; she is
one who doesn't like being closed in at night, but she also is the one
the others usually won't cuddle-sleep with... Maybe she is a sleep
kicker.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 5763]