From:
Dr. Bruce Williams
Date: 2001-02-28 17:57:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Adrenal False-Alarm
Mike - you are correct. Some cases of hyperestrogenism are not
sufficient to totally throw the system out of whack, to cause total
atrophy of hair follicles so that they cannot regrow new hair shafts,
etc. However, they mangnify the normal changes that ferrets go
through during the seasons - a shed, weight loss, etc. So these
normal changes will be worse than normal, but will abate as they
usually do.
The problem is that next year, the lesion may have grown to the point
where the hyperestrogenism causes a more permanent change.
I've currently got a ferret in the same situtation - she had a poor
coat over the winter, and looked like a classic adrenal, but it has
all grown back in.
She's still going in for surgery.
With kindest regards,
Bruce H. Williams, DVM
Join the Ferret Health List at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-
Health-list
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "Michael Janke" <mjanke@m...> wrote:
> >Hi All, my little guy, Bandit, was loosing hair on his lower back,
in late
> >November, which I took for early stages Adrenal Disease. However,
he has
> >since grown his hair back and has what I would guess is a fine
silky summer
> >coat and healthy as the proverbial horse. Can anyone account for
this or
> >could he still be in trouble? I always thought that an adrenal
ferret
> >would go totally nude after a while.
>
> I don't want to dash your hopes, and Bandit may very well NOT have
adrenal
> disease, but sometimes adrenal ferrets experience a remission of
symptoms
> for no explainable reason. Their hair comes back, aggression
abates, vulva
> swelling subsides, etc. Unfortunately, symptoms eventually come
back and
> usually stays the second time around (unless treated of course).
The
> beginning of these periods of remission and return of symptoms often
> coincide with the fall and/or spring seasons.
>
> Mike
>
> p.s. this was a reply to a Ferret Mailing List pots. I cross-
posted it here for general information.