I've been so far behind in my lists, and I haven't posted in awhile, but
my mother and I are both having some problems with our gangs.
 
To start, my mother's ferret Mulan is having syptoms of adrenal, we
believe.  She was taken to a good ferret vet a few months back, and it
was decided at the time to just wait and see if Mulan developed any real
symptoms of adrenal.  She was adopted back in the spring (along with 4
others( by my mother from a woman who said that she might have adrenal.
No tests have been done (they will be in the near future, from what I
understand) yet.  All of this info has been passed on to me from my
mother, who lives in another state so I haven't seen Mulan.  She has a
thinning of the hair on the shoulders, a slightly swollen vagina, is 3
years old, but get this...she has nipples!  My mother said that there are
8, four in two rows on her stomach area.  Any idea why this might be??
She was purchased from a pet store, and was spayed.  Again, this is info
that the woman gave my mother when she took the bunch in.  Don't
incomplete spays happen before they reach 1?  From everything I've always
heard, 3 years of age is too old to even have that be an option.
 
Now, onto my problem.  Phil is fat!  I know this comes up a lot, and it's
just attributed to winter weight, or that the ferret really isn't fat,
just has a little pudge...but now I'm getting worried.  I've brought it to
the attention of my vet, and both times it was decided it really wasn't a
problem.  When I got him back in June, he was a normal weight.  Over time,
though, I've watched him be able to get in the tubes, to not being able to
at all.  He doesn't run around much anymore, waddles, is bare of hair on
his tummy (which I was told is from him rubbing against things), and when
he does run, he stops like he is worn out from the short burst of energy.
He is stubby, about the length of the girls, definitely shorter then the
boys, but is fatter then any of them!  At last weigh-in he was over 3
pounds (I've never had one reach that weight), and that was a couple of
months ago.  He gets the same exercise and eats the same as the others,
but just keeps getting bigger.  He is only about 9 months old.  Any ideas
of what to do?  Are there any diseases where constant gain of weight is a
symptom?  I feel like an idiot to keep bringing it to the vets attention
especially if he just needs to go on a diet.
 
Any insight and help to these problems is greatly appreciated.  Please,
if anyone thinks that either of these guys needs to get to a vet ASAP,
*please* let me know!  I am horribly behind on all of my email, and if I
don't get back to anyone who responds to this post, I apologize.  Thank
you!
 
Jaymi + Leroy, Petra, Samson, Calvin, Heidegger, Joe, Phil, Madigan, and
Floyd!
[Posted in FML issue 2859]