From:
"Michael Janke"
Date: 2002-09-16 02:36:12 UTC
Subject: Adrenal survey
To: <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Message-ID: <LPBBJCPOGBGKFCPLDLBNAEENDHAA.mjanke@miamiferret.org>
As some of you may know, I've had an "adrenal survey" running continuously
on my Adrenal/Insulinoma website for a few years now. At this point in
time, 1176 people have participated in this survey.
Now please keep in mind that this survey is far from scientific. The
software is simple and doesn't have the ability to branch off different ways
based on the answer to certain questions, so some results are questionable
as to their meaning.
I've only included the two answers with the highest results to the question,
whereas there may have been 5 or 6 possible answers.
There were 550 male ferrets and 626 were female
726 were Marshall Farms ferrets, while second highest was "other" at 289.
Since most of the major breeders were listed, I can only assume that 289
people didn't know for sure where the ferret was from. Also keep in mind
that Marshalls is the largest supplier of ferrets in the U.S. and naturally
will have a higher percentage. This number should not be taken to mean that
Marshall ferrets are more likely to have adrenal disease than ferrets from
other breeders.
304 were first diagnosed at 3-4 years of age, 298 at 4-5 years. There was a
gradual increase/decrease prior to and after these age groups.
753 said their ferret had no other concurrent disease while 178 said the
ferret also had insulinoma.
707 said hair loss was the first symptom noticed and 163 said a swollen
vulva was the first symptom.
704 were diagnosed symptomatically by hair loss, followed by 148 by
exploratory surgery.
716 opted for surgery while 277 said "no treatment". (this is confusing
since it's hard to determine why no treatment was provided or what that
really means)
864 said no drugs were used for treatment while 134 used Lupron
400 had the left adrenal removed, 119 had the right removed and 181 had both
removed (or partially removed)
547 said symptoms subsided in 1-3 months following treatment whereas 490
said symptoms never subsided. This last figure is scary, but again, this
may have been the only answer possible for those that did not treat the
disease.
905 were neutered prior to sexual maturity, 227 did not know if/when the
ferret was neutered and only 5 whole ferrets were in this group.
1054 said kibble was the ferret's primary diet while 3 fed whole prey
animals
1168 house their ferrets indoors while only 8 housed them outdoors
There is also a question as to whether or not the ferret was consistently
exposed to natural light cycles. I believe that the majority did not
understand what that meant because the results were heavy on the "YES" side,
until I clarified the question. Currently, it stands at 50% for both yes
and no, which still seems VERY high for the YES side.
If you'd like to participate in the survey (or just view all the results) go
to...
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/vote.htm
Click on the "View Survey Results" button to view, or answer the survey
questions after which you'll be shown the results to date.
I'd also like to mention that it was one year ago today that we lost
Beasley, who was the inspiration for this website. We still miss him
terribly.
mike