From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2002-05-16 22:26:00 UTC
Subject: prostate enlargement info
Life's been exceedingly busy and the vets have also been very, very
busy (Some types of grant due dates arriving for some places that
fund Steve's field and since that place also does some things
biological..., finals for students, talks to give, papers to finish,
etc. -- all on top of care to provide for their own clients'
ferrets.). Knowing how fine vet, Jerry Murray, is at things
endocrinological I had asked him about someone's problem maybe a week
back. The problem is that i can't recall if the person with this
ferret is in the FML, the FHL, or both. So, whomever you are, here
is the info you needed forwarded through me from him.
Oh, and I seem to recall that although ultrasound is so-so for
adrenal growths it is useful for finding enlarged prostates.
HI Sukie,
There are 2 options: surgical and medical.
Surgery-go in and take out the adrenal gland(s).
If there are prostatic cysts then they can be drained and
omentalization can be performed.
Medical-Lupron depot at high doses (200-500 mcg/month) to stop
the overproduction of hormones. Melatonin can also be used
with the Lupron. Plus Propecia/Proscar at 1 mg once a day for the first
30 days then reduce to 0.1mg/kg once a day after that. This will help
decrease the size of the prostate and prostatic cysts. Casodex
can also be used at a dose of 5mg/kg once a day to help shrink the
prostate. The other drug that can be used to help shrink the prostate
is flutamide at 10 mg/kg 2-3 times a day. In my opinion, Propecia
works the best of these 3 medicines. If the ferret is stable enough
then masking it down with SEVO or Iso and draining the prostatic
cyst(s) helps. Plus you can culture the fluid. These cysts are
commonly infected, so Baytril is often needed.
Enlarged prostates are serious, and require aggressive treatment, but
they usually respond to treatment. Prostatic cysts are harder to
control and can be fatal.
Hope that helps,
Jerry Murray, DVM