From:
"sukiedaviscrandall"
Date: 2010-05-21 18:28:32 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: tail hair a bit too thin
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
We've encountered both situations
where tail fur loss was only dermatological
and some of those ferrets lived long lives
never having adrenal growths. (For a long
while our ferrets, when deceased were used
to train vets who had not studied ferrets and
to train vet techs with necropsies and pathology
done so we actually know this firmly.) Some others
with tail fur loss did go on to have adrenal growths
so our experience is that it is not an absolute.
We have one who loses fur every summer from
allergies that occur in June (and sometimes the
plant comes out early as it has this May, or goes
into July. Every year we did the TN Panel and for
something like 6 summers he did not have adrenal
growths but we had to be sure there were not also
adrenal problems. This year he does have an adrenal
growth and is on deslorelin so no TN Panel this year
though we will still monitor his skin carefully because
in the years that this pollen is very high he also gets
skin sores though most years he luckily does not.
He may have been the most consistent ferret to have
the TN Panel for all that I know.
It still pays to have it checked out. Heck, there may even
be something else going on that needs treating.
Your options will be:
Give Lupron depot or deslorelin implant and see what happens.
If the ferret is older that might make sense as a preventative, anyway.
Steve and i are flirting with the idea of just having a
Suprelorin implant put in two who are 5 and 6 and without
adrenal growths to see if that might help them. It would be
hard to know because about 2/3s of our ferrets have never
had adrenal disease in their lives throughout our 28 years or
so with ferrets. (I guess maybe 29 years next month from when
Smash entered our lives.) BTW, only a handful of those have
had a second adrenal growth BUT THE ONE THING THAT IS
SEEN OVER AND OVER WITH FERRETS, INCLUDING AMONG VETS
IS THAT EXPERIENCES SEEM TO VARY ENORMOUSLY BOTH BY
HOUSEHOLD AND POSSIBLY BY REGION.
Do the TN Panel. This is much, much cheaper if the specimen
is sent directly to the university rather than through another
lab:
http://www.vet.utk.edu/diagnostic/endocrinology/index.php
After vet costs and shipping it will probably run you about $120
vs. over $200.
Wait to see if symptoms worsen.
Have an exploratory done.
Implant a melatonin depot while knowing that if there is an
adrenal growth this is less effective than Lupron or deslorelin
but is great for many ferrets, especially when used along
with Lupron or deslorelin.
http://www.melatek.net/
BTW, the deslorelin implant is Suprelorin.
http://www.peptech.com/HTML/Animal_Health/Superlorin_general.html
No one knows what is typical for ferrets because the experiences
with adrenal growths vary very incredibly widely, and there is a tendency
in on-line communications for people to be too inclined to "Me, too."
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
ferrethealth-digest@yahoogroups.com
ferrethealth-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ferrethealth-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/