Chocolate Moose had his second ultrasound today to try to determine which adrenal gland is diseased. He lost fur bilaterally late last year in two quarter-sized patches on either side of his spine near his rump. His first ultrasound was in December and didn't reveal anything. I scheduled exploratory surgery at Colorado State University in late December and then canceled it because all his fur grew back during the first half of December and the vets said there was a real possibility that if the disease were not advanced enough, even a surgeon might not be able to tell which adrenal gland to remove. Of course, I knew from reading the FML that he was just in remission and it was only a matter of time. In January, he seemed to grow more lethargic and we did a blood test that didn't turn up anything abnormal. I then opted to do a University of Tennessee adrenal panel. The results came back this week and they were positive for adrenal disease. But the ultrasound didn't turn up anything conclusive. My vets are now going to check with the University of Tennessee to see if there is any correlation between elevated adrenal values and the size of the diseased gland. We could see his kidneys, vena cava, intestines, stomach gas, and liver, but no sign of an adrenal gland. Both ultrasounds were conducted by people who have experience doing ultrasounds on ferrets and who have often been able to find diseased adrenal glands because usually, the diseased adrenal is enlarged and it stands out. Both ultrasounds showed a cyst in one of his kidneys, but nothing else of concern. The cyst -- a large dark spot bigger than the usual features in a kidney -- may not even be a cyst but may be an oversized collection sac that he was born with. At this point, I don't know what else to do except schedule another exploratory at CSU because the vets there have experience doing right adrenalectomies if the right adrenal gland is the one that happens to be affected. The only problem is I won't be available to take a week to go to Colorado until mid-March (spring break). I ordered Dr. Weiss' video showing how to do cryosurgery and one of the vets here is interested in looking at it when it arrives. Of course, that probably won't be in time to help Chocolate Moose because the vet would also have to buy the equipment to do the cryosurgery and there may not be a big enough market in Albuquerque to justify the expense. I would really like to have a vet here who can do the cryosurgery because I think it would be a lot easier on the ferret and Dr. Weiss has been getting such good results with it. If anyone has any information about this situation that may be of help, please let us know. Thanks. Linda, Chocolate Moose (Mom, I'm tired), Lucky Charm, and Zipper [Posted in FML issue 2958]