Please keep sending the adrenal info; I've had 46 people respond, detailing
adrenal disease in 97 ferrets.
 
FYI (thus far):
Ferrets seem to develop the disease about 2-3 years, 4-5 years, and later
than 6 years.
 
If the respondants are any indication (which I doubt) about 20% of ferrets
die either during surgery or shortly after. (I attribute this to reporting
bias).
 
Sable males and albino females seem to get adrenal problems the most (see
above for probable reason).
 
Early onset of adrenal disease results in a temporary cure, but usually has
a later additional occurence of the disease which is markedly worse.
 
In ferrets older than 5 years, non-treatment or medical treatment results in
a longer life span than surgical treatment.
 
If a ferret is going to respond to any treatment, it will usually do so
quite rapidly; slow response to treatment usually means the prognosis is
poor or non-existant.
 
Early onset of adrenal disease, followed by surgery, allows the ferret to
live about another 3-5 years.  Non-treatment or medical treatment for the
same onset allows the ferret to live 1.5-3 years.
 
Elderly onset of adrenal disease is typically a terminal situation, leaving
the ferret between 6 months to a year left to live regardless of treatment.
 
Surgical costs average to $350 US ($100-$750).
 
Of all the symptoms of adrenal disease, the one that bothers people the most
is the loss of hair, but the one that impacts the ferrets the most are
metabolic and behavioral changes.  Many respondants stated the ferret was
cured with the return of hair, even though behavioral and metabolic changes
where still occuring.  *NO* one mentioned follow-up testing to see if the
various proceedures were actually successful.
 
About 80% of the ferrets that had early onset of disease, followed by
surgery and a "cure," had a later relapse of the disease in the other
adrenal.  There is no information to conclude the original surgery was
successful and the later occurence was coincidental, or if the original
surgery was actually unsuccessful.
 
Only about 60% of ferrets that get adrenal disease are from Marshall Farms,
but they seem to have an earlier onset of the disease, with a propensity of
reoccurence.
 
I found *this* to be quite interesting: very few people said they only had a
single ferret with adrenal disease at one time.  Usually, the adrenal
disease seemed to come in "spurts," with several ferrets coming down with it
at once, suggesting a strong environmental factor in the disease.
 
*IMPORTANT!!!* This are only very preliminary results of a few returned
surveys.  Anything reported could change with additional information, and
some of the results are still a little internally contradictory, probably
from the small sample size and reporting biases.
 
What I didn't report is the level of emotion often brought into the
descriptions.  Some of the reports are very hard to read, and it is quite an
honor to be allow to share in the grief for a friend so obviously missed.
It is quite touching, even for someone so obviously touched.
 
Keep sending in the stuff!!
 
Bob C and the 20 Masticating Hairballs
[Posted in FML issue 2158]