Hello, all!

Sorry to jump right in with a difficult question, but my oldest girl is
quickly taking a turn for the worse, and when I see the vet next week,
I'm hoping to have something helpful to suggest. I've also cross-posted
this to the FHL in hopes of getting as many replies as possible.

I have two older ferrets, Yuki and Gwin, both suffering from adrenal
disease and insulinoma.

Yuki's history: She was diagnosed with insulinoma about 2 years ago.
She was on .1 pred 2x a day, up until the Deslorelin implant.

Gwin's history: She underwent adrenal surgery about three years ago,
but only the left side was removed. She recovered quickly and seemed
to do well for about 2 years. About 8 months ago, seemingly out of the
blue, she had a bad case of hypoglycemia. I was waking them up in the
morning to give Yuki her pred, and Gwin was unresponsive. Long story
short, she's got insulinoma too.

Not long after that, we noticed Gwin's hair thinning. It was doing it
in the same way as when she first had adrenal disease diagnosed, so we
knew it had returned. However, Yuki's hair also seemed to be thinning,
but it was very mild, and it wasn't clear if it was adrenal disease or
not, since she had no other symptoms.

So, the vet recommended deslorelin implants, saying that even if Yuki
didn't have adrenal, it would be good to do it as a preventative. Since
Gwin was definitely having a relapse, we agreed to have them both given
the implants. This was about 5 months ago.

We monitored their blood glucose after the implants, and had to bump
them both up to keep the insulinoma under control Yuki is at 0.4 2x a
day, and Gwin is as 0.35 2x a day.

Gwin is doing well, although she's developed a mysterious cyst on her
throat. We're still trying to figure out what it is. The vet drew a
sample, and it was filled with blood. It popped when she drew the
sample, but came back again a few days later. She tested it again, and
again, it was filled with blood, although it didn't pop that time. For
now, we're monitoring it.

Anyway, Yuki is another story. Her hair loss slowed after the implant,
but over the last two months, it's getting worse. Her rear end is
completely bald, and she has bald patches starting on her head and
shoulders.

The vet was surprised because she'd heard such good things about
Deslorelin, and hadn't heard of it failing like this. She's not sure
what we should do. She's posted on a vet board, but hasn't gotten a
response. Our options are to try again with the Deslorelin, or to
switch to Lupron and see if that works any better.

Any experience with this?

Thanks so much!
Vanessa

[Posted in FML 7860]