While virtually wading through the mailbox (Elizabeth had saved >600 messages and the box had >700) I noticed a handful of email asking for information regarding my opinions on adrenal treatments. Buddy had died from adrenal tumors that ultimately spread throughout his body, Sandy is currently fighting the problem, and Simon has just started showing symptoms. When Buddy was ill, I wrote, called or otherwise badgered about 20 well respected veterinarians, who all agreed with my assessment to allow nature to take its course as the most humane treatment. As far as I understand, there are four basic treatments for adrenal tumors: 1) Chemotherapy, 2) Surgical removal, 3) Steriod therapy, and 4) Do nothing (which isn't actually a treatment). Some of these might be done in conjunction with others, or some done after others have failed. There is a cost to each treatment. Chemotherapy is short-term expensive, and in the long run might cost more than surgery. Surgery, depending on the location, can be very expensive ($500-$700 US). Steriods are much cheaper, but they don't cure anything; the problem is still there, only hidden. There are physical costs as well; surgery is quite traumatic and painful. Chemotherapy can be quite uncomfortable as well, and even though the initial discomfort levels are below that of surgery, the long term discomfort could be greater. Steroids can cause many side-effects, the worst being osteoporosis. No one seems to know how much discomfort is caused by doing nothing, although quality of life is certainly affected. The risks of each treatment can be high. No nothing, and the ferret will ultimately die from the disease. Steroids will suppress the adrenal activity, but the tumor is still there, and ultimately steriods will fail, the disease will spread and the ferret will die. Chemotherapy may or may not kill the tumor cells (more research is needed!!), but the long term effects of treatment to the kidney and liver cells of the ferret are unproven. Surgery has it own set of risks and could result in immediate death, short term death from surgical complications, or diminished lifespan. Admittedly, these complications occur in a small percentage of cases, but they are still risks that should be considered. The benefits of not doing anything are low trauma and pain to the ferret compared to chemo/surgical discomforts. The ferret will be bald, and will gradually lose much of its weight. Steroid treatment reduces the hair loss to some extent, and slows the spread of the disease. Chemotherapy may work and the ferret may return to normal appearance and behavior. Surgery has a high success rate, and shaved hair will return after the next moult. The question that always comes back to me is, how long will the ferret live for each of these procedures? There is considerable disagreement on this, partally because each ferret is an individual, and also because no one really knows (as far as I can determine a comparative study has not been published). The best I can tell is, do nothing and most ferrets die in about 1 to 1.5 years. Use steroids and most ferrets die in about 1-2 years. Use chemotherapy and most ferrets die in about 1-2 years. Do surgery and most ferrets die in about 1-3 years. Notice a pattern? Ferrets that are good surgical risks live a bit longer, but I'll bet they were healthier and younger to begin with. Everything else is about the same length of time before death, which may be a phenonemon not of treatment, but of lifespan. Ferrets either get this disease early or late, with the early onset (2-3 years) being more positively surgically addressed. Late onset occurs about 4-5 years old. Add 1.5 years of survival time and you get the low-end average of the typical lifespan of a ferret, which is about 6-8 years. Another thing to consider is *why* they are getting the disease. Lots of hyperbole has been spread that MF ferrets get the disease more than others. Maybe, maybe not. A scientific study has never been published as far as I can tell. However, I'm beginning to think that what we are seeing is a consequence of greater lifespans and possibly a "limiting disease." To begin with, tumors, both benign and malignant, occur in greater frequencies in older individuals, primarily because DNA damage accumulates over time. Some species have a tendency towards certain types of tumors in specific parts of the body, and such a thing may be going on in ferrets having tumors in the adrenal glands. In other words, one reason we are seeing an increase in adrenal disease is because ferrets are living long enough to develop it (New Zealand feral ferrets only live 2-4 years; 5 is very old, majority die under 2 years). However, you *cannot* eliminate the environment from this discussion, and the onset of tumor growth may be initiated or speeded up by diet (specifically lack of natural fiber), ad libatum feeding, photoperiodism, lack of exercise, unnatural chemistry (cigarette smoke, solvent fumes, wood formalehyde, etc.), micronutrient undernutrition, unknown viruses, overnutrition, and/or lack of physical handling, to name a few of many environmental factors. REQUEST: How about everyone on the FML who has had a ferret *die* from adrenal disease, or who can accurately report someone else with the experience, write in and say: "Toby (Private Breeder; Adopted from Shelter at 3 years old; Silver Mitt; Male): onset of disease 5 years old, surgical treatment followed by steroid therapy, death at 6.5 years of age." Send them to me or post them and I will compile them and report the results. Now, this *isn't* a scientific analysis because the FML is not a random list, so you vets online send data as well. Shelter ferrets need to be identified as such (all my adrenal babies came from shelters), because sick ferrets may be abandoned at a higher rate than healthy ferrets and the lifespans may be shorter due to less human interaction. The bigger the data base, the better I can detect a skew and correct for biases. Be as accarate as you can and label guesses (estimations) accordingly. This may not be scientific, but at least we can have *something* to base our decisions upon, and anything is better than nothing. Bob C and 20 MO Sharkdogs [Posted in FML issue 2151]