From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2005-07-23 18:04:24 UTC
Subject: RE: Precious'' tail
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <2724494.1122141864575.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
I think that perhaps shelters see more adrenal growths because a number of =
the same people who will surrender ferrets are also those who don't look in=
to how to care for them health-wise, so these ferrets are likely to have ha=
d way too little complete darkness. For that reason, around here if we hav=
e ones who were rescues we actually take fur loss on the tail more seriousl=
y than we do fur loss on the tail in ones we know have gotten a lot of dark=
ness.
We have had ferrets who just had acne on their tails, but we have also had =
ones who lost fur on their tails who later lost it elsewhere and who had ad=
renal growths. =
(We are lucky, though. We provide a LOT of access to very, very dark place=
s for the ferrets around the clock, both when they are inside cages and whe=
n they are our running around -- which is really easy to do by just having =
bedding under furniture and covers over the furniture, and by having beddin=
g bedding in the far corners of long closets which are open just a tad on t=
he other side, etc. The upshot is that we have a low rate of adrenal growth=
s in general (and that was also true back when we used to do necropsies wit=
h pathology on all who passed) and have had only a rare few with adrenal gr=
owths that began earlier than 5 years of age. Ferrets are best off when th=
ey can manage to get around 14 hours of real darkness (in other words, not =
just dimness) in each 24 hour period, I think. There were some times in th=
e last 24 years when providing enough darkness was hard -- for instance dur=
ing a time before I had a handicap heal as much as it has now -- and we saw=
spikes of several adrenal cases within about 18 months of each of those ti=
mes.)
If you can not provide enough darkness or if you want to take extra precaut=
ions there are preventative Lupron and melatonin approaches which can hopef=
ully prevent some cases of adrenal growths. =
Here are two great resources to help you. I STRONGLY URGE YOU TO READ BOTH=
:
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/adrenal.htm
and
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/melatonin.htm
There are also absolutely great past posts in the archives, esp. those from=
AFERRETVET on ways to treat possible complications of adrenal disease. Th=
e archives are very friendly. Just play with them a little and you will se=
e how easy and forgiving they are, so don't worry about using them, just tr=
y them out. You can find them at =
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
=
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