From:
SukieCrandall
Date: 2002-01-21 22:56:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Adrenal/Insulinoma research
--
One of the biggest problems is early neutering - the petstore ferrets are
neutered so early, hardly having their eyes open (3 weeks) and I have even
seen some little ones at petstores weighing only 240 grams or so, that have
already been neutered/descented. It is ONE of the BIG reasons, plus ferret
metabolism is very high to begin with, which doesn't help any.
----------------
I reply:
The ages that I have heard are more in the 4 to 4 and 1/2 week range
from farms in general, but who really knows for the grouping.
The problem here, though, is that it really is not known if early
neuters vary from late neuters in terms of the number of adrenal
growths or in the ages that they happen. Certainly, it seems that
whole ferrets get them more rarely and at older ages, though firm
figures don't exist last I heard to see if that impression is
reality. There was a Dutch study which actually was not looking at
that aspect, and did fulfill it's stated goal of showing that adrenal
disease is quite present in the Netherlands. That study hinted that
there *MIGHT* be some differences in late versus early neuters, but
it had very poor sampling techniques for trying to get a grasp on
something that requires precision, plus other study design deficits
for trying to figure out such a thing, and the onset ages had such
an absolutely huge +/- aspect to them that the deviation was much
larger than the time between the ages of early neuters and typical 6
to 8 month old late neuters, which means that those may make no
difference at all in on-set or on-set age *IF* the hints they saw
even hold up in an actual study. Yes, there is a lot of need for
some good studies and certainly for funding of such studies.
For insulinomae I have not read of anything that implicates early neutering.
There's anything BUT an easy-answer...
I gather that you'd like to know about getting research done. Part
of that involves making sure that enough monies are provided to
reputable researchers, and that they have the materials they need.
There are several ways to do that: through an over-seeing group such
as the Morris Animal Foundation, through some veterinary universities
which study ferrets, through some ferret veterinary clinics that also
do research, and through the ferret tissue bank of the Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology. Hope that helps you with your inquiries.