From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2003-10-23 19:47:14 UTC
Subject: wondering (cannabis)
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com, AFERRETVET@cs.com
Message-id: <a06002005bbbde0860555@[10.0.1.25]>
Someone on a different list brought up marijuana and here is part of
what I got wondering about for that list:
Re: pot:
Well, I can think of one way that topic relates to ferrets. They can
glaucoma, and cannabis has compounds which may help with ocular
hypertension, but then again it is hard on the lungs and it also
often messes badly with the hormonal system. (Yes, this relates to
ferrets.) Years ago I had two experimental breast surgery
procedures -- the first in the U.S. to have a wedge mastectomy and
also I had a scarification process which turns out to at times work
for those of us who keloid easily but not for others. Anyway, my
surgeon who was also a professor who specialized in diseases of the
breast was telling me about some recent surgeries he had done on
teenaged boys. Smoking pot during early puberty had caused them to
wind up producing unusual levels of estrogen (much too high) and they
had to have mastectomies because they were forming actual female
breasts (not just the fat enlargement seen with overweight) as a
result: real functional female breasts. The cause was known and
documented even then according to him.
Okay, here is how this relates to ferrets: I can't recall seeing it
asked about before, but can exposure to pot perhaps cause a similar
endocrinological problem with too much estrogen circulating?
Certainly we all know the problems that too much estrogen production
can cause with prolonged estrus or with adrenal neoplasia. I wonder
if exposure to pot may also throw them off and have negative health
results.
I am looking forward to seeing what drugs might be derived from
studies of the compounds. (For humans as well as for ferrets, since
humans also sure get ocular hypertension and we have a worse time of
it with some types of chemo treatments and there are compounds in pot
which reduce those terrible side effects.) I DO wonder about which
compounds had the hormonal effects, though and when and how they
could be used or should be avoided, for ferrets as well as for humans.
Any idea if exposure to marijuana may be risk factor for adrenal
growth worsening, problems with gestation, or for prostate problems
in ferrets?