Message Number: YG7870 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Gabrielle
Date: 2001-10-10 12:19:00 UTC
Subject: Heat versus Adrenal disease

Okay, long story short...I need a defination of the difference
between being in Heat versus having adrenal disease...if you want to
know why you can read the really long version I originally wrote.

--Gabrielle in Seattle, WA

______________________________________________________________________

*long version*

Considering how many people get ferrets when they are too young to
get spayed, you would think that there would be more info on females
going into heat.

I have a female, whose previous owner swears she is in heat, but the
symptoms are the same as Adrenal disease. She owned Sugarball for
many years and mated her regularly. Since she is getting older,
Sugarball is not being mated anymore and was given to me.

The local ferret shelter keeps vasectamized ferrets from when he
finds lost females already in heat. Since its so much more expense
and so much more dangerous to spay a female why she is in heat, he
decided this was the best answer.

Sugarball went into heat right after I got her, and I just brought
her home from being "serviced" at the shelter the month before last
and now she is in heat again! I really want to trust the previous
owner, as she has had several ferrets over many years, but all the
info I find on the net seems to say she has adrenal disease. Which
evidently is very similar to being in heat. So I am so confused.

I can't get to the vet the former ferret owner used and I haven't
found a ferret doctor I trust yet. All the local vets I called
didn't convince me that they knew much about ferrets.

On top of all this, I am moving at the end of the month and have to
use almost all of my next paycheck on the deposit and just a little
less of the next for first months rent. So if I can find a vet I can
trust I will have to find someone to borrow money from to take her.
I really can't afford to put myself in debt just because I want to be
sure she is in heat, but I also don't want to neglect her if she is
having a serious problem.

Can someone please help with a proper definition of the difference?