**The advice dispensed by myself in reference to FML postings is not meant to supplant the advice of veterinarians who are in charge of the patient. If the patient is not currently under the care of a veterinarian, the client is recommended to take their ferret to one.** >From: "Aimee Hettinger (BIO)" <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: ferrets sick Adrenal disease in ferrets can be treated either medically using a drug called Lysodren or surgery. Most vets prefer the surgical option since we can, in a lot but not all cases, cure the ferret. Insulinoma is probably best treated medically. New evidence suggests that even large solitary insulinoma tumors (which used to be treated surgically) have microscopic spread throughout the pancreas that will need to be treated medically. >From: Denis Dubois <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: surgery post-poned - lysodren side-effects? >Whidbey's second adrenal/exporatory surgery has been post-poned at the >surgeon's suggestion. The pre-op blood work came back with really high >levels of the liver enzyme ALT. I can see skin lesions from the effects of hyper adrenal disease even in ferrets being on lysodren. Side effects of Lysodren include: nausea, vomiting, hypoglycemia and anorexia. From a surgery point of view, Lysodren also shrinks the affected adrenal gland making it difficult to determine which adrenal gland is abnormal during surgery. >From: "Tracy L. Tunnison" <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Question for the vets You can try the smallest dog size (it is hard to overdose). I have not seen any studies showing whether maldigestion or malabsorption is a big problem in ferrets so it is tough to say whether Prozyme will help. Also some of the fecal digestion test are notoriously inaccurate and give false positive and negative results quite frequently. >From: Mel Hyner <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: weight loss & teeth Tartar and plaque build-up is common. Regular brushing might help. In the case of broken tips of teeth, there really is not a lot you can due. I have down a type of root canal on ferret canine teeth with some good results. >From: CHARLES E FOX <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Question for Vets >According to an article in the 1997 edition of Critters USA (page 20), >ferrets are susceptible to canine bordetella. Ferrets can get Bordetella, one of the causes of canine kennel cough. It does not seem to be a big problem in ferrets however. The current recommendation is not to vaccinate them since the effectiveness of the vaccine is unknown in ferrets, you still run the risk of a vaccine reaction, and they do not seem to get clinical disease from the infection often. Somewhere in the sending of the normal ferret panel values a portion of the second progesterone description was placed at the end of the previous line. Those two lines should read: Progesterone nmol/L 2.2 0.9 3.4 0.8 3.18 17-OH Progesterone nmol/L 0.2 0.1 0.3 0.1 3.18 Mike Dutton, DVM, DABVP Weare Animal Hospital Weare, NH. [Posted in FML issue 1656]