Something which has not come up in conversation is that there are silent adrenal growths that happen sometimes. Over the years we've had three or four (guessing) ferrets who were completely without symptoms but who had adrenal growths found on testing, or at surgery for something else. Meeteetse has a silent one right now. Over the years I have read about others in the same positions, or whose adrenal growths were not spotted until they literally were dying -- at which point symptoms began, have also heard of individuals who had adrenal growths found at necropsy for deaths from OTHER causes who never had any symptoms or any problems despite the growths being present. As far as I can tell no one knows how many ferrets have SILENT adrenal growths since so few necropsies are done (though numbers encountered accidentally by vets looking at other things would possibly be very interesting compared to population sizes, and a discussion of the good and bad points of such numbers would likely make sense). Numbers for acute presentations are something I'd expect that vets would be likely to have in their records once some have the time to do actual record reviews. Ashling had an acute onset, and so did Warp. Don't know if or how one could possibly separate a rapid onset from one that had been quietly growing and just then showed symptoms in a marked fashion (sometimes even just about at death). Vets, any comments? In humans it's been found that slipped discs are much more common than people had known, but about 75% of them never cause any problems, so one interesting question becomes what aspect separate a silent one from one which does cause difficulties. One percentage which might need to eventually be known is how many adrenals stay silent and do NOT pose a health hazard. Is it zero, or might it even be a high percentage as with human slipped discs? Many of us humans also are walking around with growths that it simply doesn't pay to remove because the likelihood of those growths causing problems is about nil, and sometimes to risk of surgery is a very real concern. It would possibly be useful in the future to know when to ignore or wait when a silent adrenal neoplasia is found accidentally if a vet is not already inside the cavity. Would these numbers perhaps be more easily found in vet records than some other needed numbers than have come under discussion so far? Adrenal growths are not a blame situation because nothing is known. (Neglect is a blame situation in and of itself.) If it is true that neglect situations lead to even higher rates then that might have some interesting directions in which to look, but it certainly doesn't mean that all adrenal neoplasias reflect neglect as the person who garnered flames pointed out. Don't ignore a possible hint just because the words aren't pleasant when rewritten in a different direction. (It's kind of like the old admonition that "Absence of proof is not proof of absence".) All that any of us can do is to be frank, to take what precautions we can, do our best, and listen to those who run into either more adrenal neoplasias or fewer of them to try to see what things (among a multitude) might be different. That gives hypotheses but it doesn't give answers. For answers we need to put our money where out mouths are and donate to places like the Morris Animal Foundation (1-800-243-2345), the AMC, and research projects at veterinary schools noting prominently that the monies are to be used to help fund veterinary research which will benefit ferrets. (If donating enough you can even say which diseases are of personal interest.) If the monies aren't there then the work won't be done. Simple as that. People will send proposals but the funds won't exist to okay them. Llama people, cat people, dog people, and horse people all give a lot ( a real lot) toward improving the veterinary care of their critters. Ferret people need to do the same. That's some of what it takes to be part of the solution. [Posted in FML issue 3107]