From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2005-09-18 21:02:07 UTC
Subject: RE: Adrenal disease
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <6394597.1127077327794.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
> There was a rather large adrenal study in Holland in which it was learned that late neutering did not help, it just seemed to delay the onset. Ferrets there, on average, developed adrenal disease 8 months to a year later than the average U.S. ferret.
Yes, and in the original study the deviation was so large that an age of onset difference of less than about a year was negligible at best. It would be cool to do this sort of onset study with the curculating melatonin levels also monitored, since the problem appears to be one of sterilization combined with large amounts of light exposure.
It is a very intriguing study. It really got rid of the assertion that adrenal growths there were rare, and it pointed in some interesting directions.
> Here's a link to that study in PDF form...
> http://www.library.uu.nl/digiarchief/dip/diss/2003-1128-094343/c7.pdf
> This is actually just one chapter, titled "Correlation between age at neutering and age at onset of hyperadrenocorticism in ferrets", from a very large paper on adrenal disease.
Yes, there has been marvelous work coming from that quarter, and I look forward to more of it, and know that I am far from alone.
BTW, I have heard it postulated that there MIGHT genetically be strains of polecats and perhaps domestic ferrets in Northern Europe which cope better with larger light exposures than those in more temperate parts of Europe. That is only a postulation, but after more is know about the basics of adrenal disease it might be an intriguing possibility to investigate givne the "Midnight Sun" factor... Again, remember that it is suggested by some people but not at all anything proven or even investigated.