Tequila had one adrenal gland removed in December 1994. I got her in August of 1995. Now she is entirely bald and I feel so bad. She still eats well and plays, but I notice that she also sleeps a lot more and the play sessions are much shorter than they used to be. My vet, whom I like and trust, has seen her for several years now. So he sees the hair loss as totally drastic, while I see her daily and am not as shocked by it. He offered to remove the second adrenal gland (partial) for about $350. I opted not to have the surgery, but to put her on lysodren. I'm almost sure that everything I've seen & read indicates that removal of the second adrenal gland gives them only about 3 months left of life. If that's true, she'd be gone by now if I had had the surgery. I'm probably wrong about this, but it seems to stick in my head. It's like I see it as a death sentence. On top of that, my SO is totally against purposefully inflicting pain and/or stress on the critters. He doesn't want the vets or us poking and proding on our critters when they are obviously not suffering (aside from the obvious, vaccinations, exams, etc.). I completely understand what he's saying, but as a nursing student myself, I also look at it from a different perspective. What about diabetes in humans? Are we just supposed to ignore the fact that there is a (treatable) disease occuring within the body because the insulin shots might cause a bit of momentary pain? But if you're not convinced that the treatment will help...in fact, might hinder. $350 is a lot of money. Not that Tequila is not worth it, if I knew it would help her and prolong her life I'd do it in a snap. Tequila is 5 1/2 now. From all indications she has had a good life. At this time my SO and I have decided to let her be. If we become enlighted that we need to treat this matter differently, we will. In the meantime we are keeping a keen eye for any changes in her. If anyone has some USEFUL imput, I'd really appreciate it. I'm a bit worried because we leave for vacation Saturday for 2 1/2 weeks. The girl who is housesitting for us has no experience with ferrets, but she's good and I really trust her. She's looking forward to taking care of the ferrets, and I didn't want to remove them from their home for that period of time. My vet knows that we'll be gone and will treat as he sees fit, if something happens. I have a cat that has underlying conditions too. Good thing my "kids" bring so much joy into my life! Holly (the zookeeper) [Posted in FML issue 1633]