Well, the single best thing is to get out the bad adrenal if the ferret is a surgical candidate because not dong so is asking for trouble. If the ferret is not a surgical candidate then Lupron Depot and melatonin are the primary meds to use right now. There is research into some other meds, and, of course, Lysodren has been largely abandoned as a therapy due to its performance being all over the board -- from not touching it to so badly atrophying the adrenals that Addisons results. Effectively treating the disease typically removes the milder side effects of the disease, but there still can be some for whom meds don't do that, and of course, there are always the more serious possibilities that can arise like urinary blockage, prostatic swelling worsening to prostatic cysts, life threatening anemia, incursion into the Vena Cava or the liver, thoracic fat deposits, a tumor which had been benign changing to malignant without treatment, a malignant tumor type which does spread if caught early having time to spread, etc. Secondly, there are soothing shampoos and always the option to moisturizing with something that is safe to ingest like olive oil. Read past posts of the topic from AFERRETVET and others in http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org You can read up on Lupron and Melatonin there and in http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc Pam notes: >I agree that the later desexing is done, the better. I really think it >should be done when the ferret has reached full adulthood. In research into age of onset a difference in a few months does not change the rate or timing of onset. A difference of a year can matter, but given that about half of females die of aplastic anemia if they are not sterilized and go into heat, and that there is the risk to males in heat of being dumped, sterilizing the ferrets is actually much safer. There is at this point no reason to consider a difference of a few weeks or even a few months to matter in regard to adrenal disease. The research just doesn't back up differences with timeframes that are within 6 months of each other. The thing about sterilization is that it acts in conjunction with too much light exposure. Neither is a stand-alone. When there is too much light the body's pineal gland doesn't create enough melatonin. This is turn causes a communicating gland, the pituitary, to turn out hormones which normal would say, "Hey, ferret breeding season is here. The one which matters in this conversation is LH, Luteinizing Hormone. LH affects all endocrinological tissue that can produce sex hormones. This mainly means reproductive tissues, but sex hormones are always present in some level because they perform a lot of tasks in the body. Dozens, including muscle building, have been found for the androgens, and hundreds have been found for the estrogens including them being important for cognitive thought. The body can change them back and forth into each other to meet strong enough needs. Okay, this is what happens with a whole ferret who mates: the signal comes down and the ferret mates. Then the reproductive tissue sends a signal back to the pituitary and the LH stimulation shuts off. But other tissues which create hormones can't send a signal back, so in their case they get stimulated to the level where inflammation occurs and that sets things off according to the hypothesis which is based on these known endocrinological functions, and on it being known that continued irritation of an organ can set the stage for neoplasia and that neoplasia leads to tumors. Also, it appears that there may be some genetics which increase vulnerability and the increase in the proportions of these in relation to selective breeding for certain looks like white splotches and white spots (EXCEPT for original markings or for cleanly margined, complete, bilaterally matched mitts and bibs without spots which have a different genetic origin) spells trouble. This includes panda heads and head blazes as trouble. There are two possible reasons under consideration. One is the KIT oncogene and the other is MEN (Multiple Endocrinological Neoplasia) genetics. It may actually be that both exist in out ferrets. The change in the proportion of such genetics from just two decades ago when such markings were barely ever seen and neither were adrenal neoplasia or insulinoma very often seen at all is huge. Prevention: there IS work on-going on prevention of adrenal disease, and on delaying onset for those who get it. The things which under study are: - enough darkness (this is not just dimness but full darkness for at least 14 hours in every 24 hour period) - Lupron Depot injections in the Spring to alter the LH levels beneficially - Melatonin implants or given as 1 mg orally around the time of dusk in winter. BTW, among humans a number of hormonal related malignancies decrease in rate with people who are very physically active. They can still happen, but the rate is lower, for some very substantially so. Exercise is good for a great many health aspects so keep those fuzzies active! [Posted in FML issue 4665]