Hello All:
 
We thought we'd drop a note to the group to let everybody know about an
experimental adrenal treatment we're trying with two of our kids, Puck and
Newone.
 
Background on Puck: Puck is a nearly 6 year old albino neutered male who
still has his scent glands.  He was diagnosed as adrenal in mid 1995 and had
the "easy" adrenal gland removed.  Recently he was badly bitten by another
ferret in a fight, and this seemed to "trigger" problem with his other
adrenal.  He's now begun to lose hair along his spine in classic adrenal
fashion, and his bite wound is taking a LONG time to heal.
 
Background on Newone: Newone is an 8 year old female who came down with
adrenal symptoms at age 6.  Due to her general frailty, we did NOT have her
operated on as we didn't feel she'd survive the surgery.  Instead we've been
treating her homeopathically with colloidal silver.  SOMETHING about it has
certainly been working--she's lost most of her hair, but otherwise acts
fairly normal (for an 8-year old ferret), maintaining good appetite and
weight with none of the "scaly skin texture" normally associated with
adrenal ferrets.
 
Since Puck had already had the "easy" adrenal removed and Dr. Roder (our
vet) is loath to attempt removing the other one, we asked Dr. Roeder about
other treatments.  She is *not* a fan of one drug often suggested, Lysodren,
having had no success with it in ferrets and little in other animals.  (As
she explained it, Lysodren kills adrenal tissue, and it's difficult to set
the dosage correctly to avoid killing the animal too.)
 
She then suggested a fairly new drug being used for treatment of adrenal in
dogs, named Anipryl.  It's outrageously expensive ($78 for a 30-tablet
supply; each tablet is 2mg) but she's found it to be incredibly effective in
dogs and cats.  Rather than killing adrenal, Anipryl is thought to adjust
the brain's regulation of the adrenal glands instead.
 
To the best of her knowledge Anipryl hasn't been used on ferrets, so...we
volunteered.  We figure it can't hurt, could very well help, and either way
valuable knowledge will be gained.  Dosage is .5mg, once per day.  The drug
itself comes in very small white pills and has a slightly bitter aftertaste.
We're feeding it to Newone and Puck inside of apple/cranberry ferret treats,
which seems to be working so far.
 
We're keeping logs of what happens.  If the drug works the same way in
ferrets as it does in dogs and cats, Dr. Roeder is expecting for us to begin
seeing results in roughly a month.
 
If anybody else has had experience with Anipryl, we'd like to hear about it
so we can pass it on to Dr. Roeder.
 
We'll let you all know.
 
Steve and Colleen, from the High Mountains of Colorado
"Don't Trust Anyone Under 14,000 Feet"
[Posted in FML issue 2225]