From:
mike@dookranch.com
Date: 2002-11-08 05:34:02 UTC
Subject: RE: third adrenal glands
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <17117793.1036733642226.JavaMail.root@scandium>
I'm very interested to know what you find with this. Our Pooh Bear had adrenal surgery last April. His fur filled back in and began to recede again. (During this time we had a change in vets.) An exploratory by our new vet in September showed no problem with the remaining adrenal, but found a very small, very hidden, unexplained object attached to the vena cava, with a seperate blood source. He shaved off what he could, and sent samples in for analysis. The results came back basically as adrenal gland disease. His only explanation was that a small piece of tissue from the previous surgery may have been left and possibly grafted to the vena cava. A 1 MG dose of Lupron stopped the fur loss for a short time, but now it's back. There's nothing more to surgically do for now, other than debulk the other adrenal. But, there was nothing visibly wrong with it. We're going to go with the 2 mg injection for now, until we can find other alternatives to deal with this.
Author wrote:
> I have a question about a genetic variant.
> As some folks here know, one of our ferrets had an ectopic adrenal -
> not just some ectopic tissue but an actual third gland. I have heard
> from two others who also encountered this.
> I am wondering how common this variant is.
> I am also wondering how recent this variant is. Is it just one of
> those variations that has been around forever, or did it show up
> (after or mostly after) when fancies became more common like deafness
> and perhaps other concerning markers? If the latter, has there been
> an increase in observations of this variant?
> It may simply be that variants in adrenal glands are common -- like
> ones in human kidneys are -- but I am curious *if* this might be
> marker for concern.