My ferret has classic symptoms of adrenal dsease. I believe she first started to lose hair last summer and it has progressed slowly till the last several months. She has hair loss from her ears to her tail - all that remains is her tail,legs and face. Her vulva is severely swollen. Other than that she seems perfectly healthy- her skin is a nice color and smooth - not red, itchy or dehydrated. Ohio State did an ultrasound where they showed me what they were certain was a problem with her right adrenal gland - I could even see it. They also did blood work to check for insulinoma and anemia. No problem with insulinoma ( surprised me since her favorite treat is sugar pops) and that she was slightly anemic. I'm not sure if they checked for other things or not... The bill says they did a Hemogram-CBC & DIFF and Profile 17 Tests. When they did the surgery - everything was normal - neither gland was affected. They checked her completely out and removed three tissues or nodules that looked abnormal - one from her pancreas - a piece of tissue that they thought might be an ovarian remnant and another piece of something that they thought might be "floating" adrenal tissue. But the lab results all came back with no adrenal abnormality and no ovarian remnant and everything was benign. They thought that mass they saw in the ultrasound might have been an air pocket that she developed in the ride over ??? She came home with no meds and is just fine. Now they're talking that it might be her pituitary gland that is malfunctioning and telling her adrenal gland to overproduce ?? ... I just wish they would've taken the left one out anyway while they were in there - just to be safe. I guess this HCG shot would just be a diagnostic thing to tell them whether it might be the pituitary gland - if it is - they said they have never seen it before and I told them that I think brain surgery might just be out of the question !!! ... hahahaha But she has continued to lose hair since the surgery and her vulva is just as swollen, but she seems as healthy as she can be !!!! She has lost a little hair under her tail, but the top is still in pretty good shape - getting a little thin though. And what's really weird - the hair has appeared to grow back where they shaved her little leg for the IV !!!!! She also seems to be maintaining her mighty 1.4 lbs of body weight. Now the vet says we can just skip the shot and start her on meds, which would either be Lupron or something else that I'm sorry I can't remember the name right now. But he said that they would rather do a CAT Scan on her and that they would do this AT NO CHARGE !!!! ... Then if the CT scan showed anything the surgery expense would be "minimal" I asked about the Univ. of Tenn. blood test and he said that would only diagnose it , but not tell them WHERE this tissue is. =A0 Any of you guys ever hear about doing a CT scan on a ferret?? I hate to have to put her thru this and put her under anesthesia again, but she bounced back so well last time and seems to be in great shape so I'm willing to try it. If they have to go in, do you think I should ask them about also removing the left adrenal just to be safe?? I told my local vet to contact Ohio State and set this thing up, but I would sure like to have some mre input. I hope I have given you sufficient details. Please email direct if at all possible. Thank you in advance for any response Julie - Bauble and Wiley (the hairy one) [Posted in FML issue 3031]