Dear Debbie:
 
>I want to thank those who wrote regarding pre-treating before a distemper
>vaccine to avoid a reaction.  I think I responded to everyone.  Everything
>went fine at the vet's Thursday night.  Templeton was given an injection
>of vetalog (2mg/ml) about 10-15 minutes before his distemper shot.  I
>don't know how vetalog compares to benadryl - I'd never heard of it
>before.  Templeton did fine - no reaction to the distemper shot!  Just a
>few minutes after getting his distemper shot, the vet gave him an
>injection of ivermectin for his itchy skin.
 
>I'm pretty sure Templeton has adrenal disease.  Vet confirmed that his
>symptoms (naked tail except for a mohawk, sudden thin hair on both flanks,
>itchy skin, large abdomen, more aggressive to the other ferrets--mainly to
>our smallest female--although no sign of sexual behavior) seem to suggest
>adrenal, but because his hair came back on his tail and is starting to on
>his flanks, vet said it's probably not adrenal, but Cushing's Disease?
>From what I understand, hair can grow back and still be adrenal though,
>right?  He said the best way to check for adrenal is ultrasound, which
>they don't have the facilities for.  According to the FML, ultrasound is
>NOT the best way.
 
You know, I think I've got the flu today, and I do feel pretty rotten, and
my Internet connection has been down at home for the last two days, but
for some reason, I couldn't let this one pass by.  And anyone who knows
me knows that I don't like bashing vets (and I'd really much rather tell
you that your vet is doing everything appropriate), but...
 
I guess I can't agree with much of what your vet said.  Using a steroid
(vetalog) to pretreat for vaccination is pretty much against every tenet
of veterinary medicine I can think of.  Steroids depress the immune
response, and the immune response is exactly what we are counting on to
result in an appropriate reaction to a vaccination.
 
Then Templeton received ivermectin for itchy skin.  Ivermectin is a
treatment for a variety of mites.  While mites can cause itchy skin, they
are very uncommon in ferrets, and regardless of that fact, a skin scraping
should have been performed to identify the presence of mites before any
miticides are given.
 
Next, and I am hoping this was a miscommunication, but your ferret was
diagnosed with Cushing's disease, which is not adrenal related?  Here we
go again - ferrets do not develop Cushing's disease, but a separte unique
syndrome of hypersecretion of the adrenal gland.  In Cushing's disease, the
adrenal secretes cortisol - this is rare enough in ferrets to forget about.
In adrenal gland disease of ferrets, the secreted hormone is estrogen.
 
Is ultrasound the best way to diagnose adrenal disease - no, but it is an
excellent way to generate revenue.  the clinical signs of adrenal disease
are already present, and the disease has already been diagnosed.  Why spend
more money on ultrasound when whether it is positive or negative, you still
will end up doing the surgery?
 
It is certainly not my intention to upset you, or to bash another vet.
However, when these errors in treatment are put on the FML, all of a sudden
they get magnified and copied many times over,and people walk into the vets
asking for vetalog.  You are certainly not at fault here, and Templeton
has survived the vaccination.  If this is a one-time incident, and he has
not been on vetalog injections for a while, the vaccine will probably
take effect.
 
But this was not a good showing for your vet, and I might suggest finding
a vet who is more ferret-knowledable (difficult, I know, in Northern NY).
There are some good vets in southern Connecticut, Long Island, and New
England who might not be as expensive as Cornell....
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP
[Posted in FML issue 3327]