From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2008-01-05 18:38:16 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Clarification of rate
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
I am writing to the person who is credited for the statement
in the article. He isn't a U.S. vet nor a person who has written
research papers on adrenal disease as far as i have heard (both
of which confuse me further since they mean he would be
unlikely as the original source, and statement is credited to two
years ago so if it was from new research by a U.S. vet or an
adrenal disease researcher I'd have expected it to be published
by now), and I have never heard of any U.S. vet doing a national
rate of adrenal disease.
So, it could obviously be something that exists which I have never
found (always a possibility) or could be a miscommunication, a
misreading, or even an editor's error somewhere.
Our personal experience is that rates of adrenal disease HAVE
increased since the earlier decades among our own ferrets, and
certainly reports of it have increased but so has recognition. Ditto
insulinoma. For adrenal disease first there seemed to be an
increase in rates from internet reports then a while later increasing
reports of early (under the ages of 5 or 6 years) cases of adrenal
disease began to appear (i.e. not simultaneous in the internet reports).
These changes happened at the same time as several other things:
increases in numbers of ferrets being bred specifically for fancy
appearances (which for a while cost much more), the introduction
of those ubiquitous green equipment lights on everything from
plug-in bars to computers (with blue being the most disruptive to
natural melatonin production in studies, green the second more
disruptive wavelength range, and amber the least disruptive in
studies I have read so those lights should be amber when they
exist though red might be an okay second), etc.
I do know people who have long been in practice who have
noticed increased rates of adrenal disease among the cases they
personally have tackled in more recent years compared to earlier
decades (ditto insulinoma rates). None of them have mentioned
to me trying to extrapolate more widely than what they
encountered in their own practices because there are problems
like trying to adjust for cases that passed unrecognized in earlier
decades. Another problem which has been suggested by Dr.
Catherine Delaney-Johnson is that latitude may affect adrenal
growths, or treatments, or both in the U.S.
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL2407
which simply makes sense from day length and sun angles.
So, I am trying to trace it back. There may be that someone
actually has a sampling of vet pulling files for two given years
and that would be interesting to know about: how many, where, etc.
The first step is to find what was in the article which was quoted,
who that was from, and then if it wasn't a miscommunication or
an editor's error to move on to the person from whom the data
originated and see details about the bases: sample size, sampling
technique, sample dispersion, etc.
It would be interesting if those who are giving their own rates
encountered added some info. Here are things I'd love to see included:
Location:
We are in NJ and have been for the entire time
Vickie is in Texas (a lot more sun than here)
I think that the Morretts are on the South Carolina-Georgia Border
Access to darkness always available since LH levels have been shown
to affect the formation of adrenal growths?
Here: yes
Vicki said that she just recently started that.
Shelter or home and who many arrived as kits vs. adults (i.e. how
much of the background of the ferret was not in your control --
important since some growths might begin quite a long time
beforehand but take a long while until they successfully reach a
noticeable size):
The vast majority of our ferrets came here as kits, even if in shelters
before here. We are a home.
Vicki is a shelter.
(We noticed in the past a sharp increase 2 or 3 years after we were
unable for an extended period to provide constant access to complete
darkness, and the most recent case we have had is maybe 2 and
1/2 years since being able to deal better with obstructions and kneel
again allowed us to again use some hard to reach very dark sleeping
places for the ferrets (ones they prefer) after a space of time when we
had to block those off.)
Conditions consistent in the location:
A few years ago we had a space of several years when we could not
provide as much darkness as we did before and after due to my being
temporarily mobility handicapped. The room has to be shared with
computer equipment which has those poorly chosen color equipment
lights I so love to hate.
Fancy or fancy background and if so then details useful:
I'd have to work that out by going through our past ones, but we
usually try to avoid fancies, especially ones with neural crest problems,
when we have a choice. That isn't always possible and we have
some of those now among our crew including two with another
genetic burden, a urinary system one.
You know, thinking back it might be that every albino ferret we have
had had adrenal disease. I am not sure for one of the four but I think
that she might have. That one did have insulinoma and heart disease (as
did at least one of the other 3 albinos.
If breeder then how many of the ferrets who leave the home are
tracked life-long, where are they and what are the conditions?
Etc.
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