Mike Dutton, DVM, DABVP said:
>Ferrets do not die acutely from adrenal disease.  A 1-2 month wait for a
>HEALTHY ferret is okay.
 
This disturbs me a little.  You say 1-2 month wait is okay but starting from
_when_?  I suspected an adrenal problem with my boy, Beckett, back in July.
In late August and September he started the hair loss.  By the time of his
surgery in late October he was all but bald.  Just after Beckett's surgery I
started to notice Max was losing his hair on the back of his neck and tail,
the way Beckett started.  He was very healthy otherwise, very active.  He
separated him from the others because of his sexually agressive nature (not
with the females, but with Beckett! :o ).  Anyway, less than a month went by
of his separation and Max dies.  I cleaned out his litter pan one evening
and the next evening I was rushing him to the emergancy clinic as he had had
no bowel movements and had not urinated since I'd cleaned up the evening
prior.  Greenish black tar was stuck to both exits.  The vet tried to drain
his bladder but all he got was pus and mucus.  Max was put on antibiotics in
hopes that in the morning he would have some good healthy pee in his bladder
to drain.  That's not what happened.  He had gone into a terrible shock so
surgery was not an option at that point.  In the morning the vet tried to
drain his bladder again and it ruptured.  Pus and mucus were no longer
contained in his bladder.  The vet said he really didn't think there was
much they could do at that point.  I drove in from work to say goodbye to my
baby three years exactly from the day I brought him home.  I was told that
b/c of the adrenal tumor, his hormones were overactive and enlarged his
prostate so that it pinched off his uretha (excuse all the spelling errors
please).  Until then I assumed you could go a little while before surgery
was necessary.  Beckett went from at least July to the end of October when I
was able to scrape up the money.  An otherwise healthy Max died a couple of
weeks after I was certain of his problem.  My new advice is not to wait at
all.  I miss my little boy.  If I had known how crucial time really was, he
would have had that surgery the day after the first hair fell out.
 
Anna and the crew minus one
[Posted in FML issue 1817]