Neutering is a factor in the development of most cases of adrenal disease (but not all since there have been whole ferrets, even young whole ferrets with adrenal disease). The paper by Dr. Nico Schoemaker which has been mentioned came out years ago, as have two (hmmm, I think 3 now but I would have to check...) others on the topic of adrenal disease in ferrets. You can find the abstracts to help you tract them down by using PubMed, and his dissertation is at the university's page that makes dissertations public. Links can be found in past FML and FHL posts. Neutering did NOT make adrenal disease inevitable. There appear to be other factors affecting onset (and exposure to too little complete darkness is discussed as a factor by other vets in the FML archives), plus the rates of adrenal disease seen in ferrets seems to vary among vets. We personally see about 1/3 of them in our family developing adrenal disease, most of those of only one gland. That is over a 27 year timeframe of having ferrets in our family. I have heard similar numbers from some vets, higher from others, and the rates reported by people for their own ferrets vary widely. So, husbandry can play a role WHEN THERE ARE FACTORS THAT INCREASE LH (Luteinizing Hormone) OUTPUT. The three year aspect was the mean -- the average -- and the actual ages of onset in Dr. Schoemaker's graph vary hugely -- enormous standard of deviation involved, so don't take it as an absolute because it could instead be 5 or more years after sterilization or even happen the first year. (Early ones are more rare but in the U.S. increased after fancies became so popular.) Two research mathematicians I ran it by considered the deviation to be large enough for the graph to be of low value. So, just take it as an average for the subset of neutered ferrets who actually do develop adrenal disease, rather than treating it as an absolute. His current research is a life time study of a number of ferrets using deslorelin implants to see several things including: 1. Does it become less effective over time in ferrets as it can in humans or not? 2. Does it work as a way to temporarily chemically neuter a ferret without having the adrenal disease (and one other research vet thinks possibly insulinoma disease) increase in rate that accompanies neutering by surgery? 3. Does it decrease the rates of adrenal disease (preventative) over the population of animals studied or delay the age of onset, or both? Deslorelin is a relative of Lupron but appears to be much better. It is done as an implant and lasts far longer in the animal plus it is cheaper. Currently, the U.S. has not approved Deslorelin in that specific form for use in this country but the application to sell it here was made about 3 years ago. Hopefully, that will happen before too long. Such applications are like rule changes you wait, and you wait and you wait and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, and you wait, and then suddenly you have to hurry up and rush about some other thing the governmental agencies want almost immediately. Each time enough people must jump and must provide the right needed info or all the earlier work, even years of it, can go down the drain. BTW, from what I have been told deslorelin implants, like Lupron Depot, can be used WITH melatonin implants to more effectively tackle the factors in more than one way. Besides the neutering -- at ANY age though there *might* be some changes that happen in females who stay whole past the one year mark or past their first heat (hypotheses that have not been investigated and are based upon some vets' observations), and besides several medications such as the useful Lupron Depot, and Melatonin Implants. One of the things under study is genetic differences. Dr. Bob Wagner has found p53 variations that make tumor fighting difficult to impossible in other species to be present in some U.S. ferret lines. Dr. Michelle Hawkins (for whose team Bob Church collected an enormous collection of ferret genetic specimens in his travels) has mostly been studying MEN (multiple Endocrinological Neoplasia) genetics this far but wants to expand into looking at other possible contributors. Speaking of contributors I suspect that with the current economic situation this, like so many other veterinary research projects, may need more donations. I don't know for sure but she is based at U.C. Davis. Since Bob has helped her and since I have known her for a great many years (ever since she was one of the people to help us when Hilbert developed his cystine uroliths) either of us could ask if potential donors want to contact us, or you can look her up or use past posts in the FML Archives in which she had me include her contact info if you can contribute some funding. Ferret health research almost always needs funding sources, not always, but so commonly that it is not funny. Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html [Posted in FML 6163]