From:
Wendy Lederman
Date: 2001-10-11 18:53:00 UTC
Subject: [Ferret-Health-list] Coinciding adrenal gland disease?
Hello! I have a ferret, Snow, who is about six years old and she just went
through the adrenal gland surgery. When they removed the adrenal gland, they
also found that she had a tumor on her pancreas which is the begininng to
insulinoma. I started to see the signs of the loss of hair on her tail and I
knew right away what it was. I had a ferret, Coco, before her who was almost
nine years old when she passed away. She also had the adrenal gland
problems. She ended up having the surgery twice because she develpoe one
tumor and they removed the adrenal gland and then developed it on the other
adrenal gland. Coco did not die from anything related to this. She actually
did really well after the surgery.
I'm not telling you these things to scare you. My doctor told me that I
had extreme cases, but that about 85% of all ferrets develope adrenal gland
tumors. It is really good if the tumors were found right away because Coco
was undiagnosed for awhile b/c the doctor did not know about these things.
Now, I only trust Snow with one doctor and that is the same one that
diagnosed Coco. There is now more than one treatment available such as
hormone shots, but that would probably be for the rest of their lives. You
should talk to your vet about all of the options. I wish you and your
ferrets the best.
Wendy
-----Original Message-----
From: mandiedorweiler@h... <mandiedorweiler@h...>
To: Ferret-Health-list@yahoogroups.com <Ferret-Health-list@yahoogroups.com>
>I have two fuzzies, Kaya and Zion. About three weeks ago I noticed
>that Kaya was losing a little hair on the tip of her tail. I grabbed
>my ferret books and starting reading. One specified that in order
>for it to be adrenal gland disease, the hair had to be falling out
>from the base of the tail moving outward. I didn't want to take any
>chances with her health so I brought her to the vet the next day.
>Although she is young for adrenal gland disease (she will be 2 in a
>month), the vet confirmed that was what she has (regardless of where
>the hairloss begins). I was told to keep an eye on her, she may need
>surgery in the future, but not now.
>A few days later I noticed that Zion was also losing a tiny bit of
>hair from the tip of his tail on the top. It is a much, much smaller
>area than Kaya. But he is only 1 1/2 years old. Why would this
>happen? I can't imagine that he has come down with adrenal gland
>disease within days of Kaya, especially at a younger age. His hair
>loss has not progressed at all since I first noticed it, but Kaya's
>has. She only has about 1/4 of her hair left on her tail now. I
>have not taken Zion to the vet because I can't imagine paying for
>another visit when he will tell me the same thing as when Kaya was
>diagnosed. Has anyone ever heard of this? Is Zion just reacting in
>his own way to his sister's illness? Any help on this would be
>greatly appreciated, I am very concerned about Kaya and Zion's health
>at this point.
>Thank you! Mandie
>
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