From:
mjanke@miamiferret.org
Date: 2004-08-08 20:05:08 UTC
Subject: RE: Pituitary question
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <6183257.1091995508856.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Author wrote:
> Does anyone know anything about pituitary problems in ferrets?
Generally it's believed that pituitary problems like what happens with dogs/cats/people just doesn't happen in ferrets. In other animals, a pituitary tumor causes an overproduction of ACTH, which in turn causes the adrenals to overproduce cortisol. This is called Cushings disease. In the "old days" before a lot was known about ferrets medically, some vets incorrectly diagnosed adrenal disease as Cushings.
Interestingly enough, in a study done by Dr. Nico Schoemaker (Utrecht University, the Netherlands), among ten ferrets with hyperadrenocorticism, there were two with a pituitary adenoma, which are the FIRST EVER described in ferrets. But Dr. Schoemaker also reports that those findings may have been incidental to and not the cause of the adrenal problems in the studied ferrets. It was a rather difficult read for me, so someone with a little more medical background may be a little better equipped to interpret his results.
Bottom line... forget about a pituitary problem. It's rare enough that I wouldn't even consider it.
mike