From: 
Sukie Crandall 
Date: 2002-06-04 16:35:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Please help with advice and personal experience
             Okay, if the only symptoms are that head balding and his difficulty 
urinating, and his blood tests for glucose levels and his CBC and 
such come out fine I'd think adrenal neoplasia as a strong possible 
if he were one of our guy's, especially given that there are two 
symptoms and one is dangerous.  Urination difficulty also would 
positively scream to me that his prostate was inflamed from it and 
that he might also have a UTI form that, and either or both can get 
dangerous to the point of being life-threatening.  If he is a good 
surgical candidate (and some at 8 years are) I'd do the surgery and 
have some tissues for biopsies with pathology done by a 
ferret-knowledgeable ferret vet taken at that time.  If he is not a 
surgical candidate I'd talk with the vet about Lupron and meds for 
his prostate, and about possibly running the Tennessee Panel.  I can 
NOT off-hand recall what the meds are, but if you use the search 
engine at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-List/
you will find past posts by vet, Jerry Murray, which cover such 
options, and you will see if the risks involved stack up compared to 
surgical risks.  A blocked urinary tract is very, very dangerous.