Any ferret lovers/owners out there?

[Pit Chick]

Have you ever had a ferret with adrenal disease? Did you do surgery or medication? Did it work?

[lv4dogs]

I personally have not had an adrenal ferret, yet, knock on wood. But do of many many people that do/did.
I know a lot that had surgery & a lot that medicated. Medication (lupron) does not cure like the surgery but many have success with it.

Most people I know just get the surgery done as it is healthier for them and cheaper in the long run. They only give the lupron if the ferret is not a good candidate for surgery (ie. very old, sick, malnurished etc..)

[Queen of Poop]

2 of my ferrets have had adrenal disease. Trouble was inoperable and was medicated, he lived for another 10 months until we had to put him down because his prostate grew uncontrollably and he lost the ability to go potty. Sebastian had the surgery last November and came thru relatively well, his recovery was quite slow and he is only now getting his hair back where he was shaved. He is a happy boy though and so is his mommy.

[Pit Chick]

I had 2 with it. It hasn't been diagnosed by a vet yet, but they had all the symptoms, the most obvious one being they were both naked. My oldest Heineken was 9 and the youngest Resen is 4. They've both had it for about 2 years and the vet told me that the oldest was too old for surgery, but we could do medication. Last year when I was getting ready to take out a loan to get surgery done, I lost my job. That was a big financial strain and the thought of surgery or medication was put on hold and I'm still trying to get out of debt.:o Well, Saturday evening the ferrets were in my room when suddenly one of them starts screaming. I open my dresser drawer and Heineken is flailing his legs, with his head thrown back screaming his head off. I had no idea what to do. I wrapped him in a towel and just held him. After what seemed like forever, he finally stopped for a few minutes and would twitch the whole time and then start screaming again. He was having seizures which I have never encountered with a ferret. The ER vet said she felt a mass on his side and said what the problem could be: either a tumor on his adrenal gland that has spread to his brain or insulinoma and they could give him some sugar, but that his blood sugar would drop again and he goes into seizures again. It was a lose, lose situation. We had to put him down that night. That has now put a fire under my rear to at any cost get Resen the necessary medical care done since she is still young and generally healthy enough to tolerate surgery. Thank you so much for the info.

[Queen of Poop]

I'm so very sorry for the loss of Heineken. If you can't afford the surgery perhaps you could medicate Resen in the meantime, this could buy him some time. Has he had an ultrasound yet to determine which adrenal gland is affected? Left adrenal surgery is pretty easy, right adrenal surgery is extremely risky and only some vets will do the surgery. The right adrenal gland is attached to the vena cava (main vein) and depending on how it's attached to that vein and if it also interferes with the liver determines if it is operable or not.

[bckrazy]

I love ferrets... they are just the coolest little animals. Our boys are both very very healthy.

My sisters first ferret did have an adrenal disease, and developed cancer when she was 3. She had to be PTS :( her name was Meka, she was the cutest little girl. She was from Marshall Farms, I've heard that a lot of their babies are unhealthy and develop cancer.

[Pit Chick]

All of mine were unfortunately from MF, but at the time of purchase I knew nothing about ferret mills or puppy mills or the poor breeding practices at MF. MF is also a puppy mill. They breed Beagles to be used exclusively in laboratories because of their trusting, docile temperaments. They breed ferrets until they can't produce anymore and they use special lighting to trick the jennies into estrous as often as possible. Let's not forget the extremely early age they spay/neuter their kits. When I bought one of my ferrets from Petco, he was the only one left and he was crying. They said they were having to bottle feed him, but that he was 8 weeks old. Uh, I don't think so, more like 4-5 weeks old. We still had to give him formula when we got him and that included 3am feedings. I will never make the mistake of buying a ferret again, they will be strictly from rescue. I did find out that there is a local "rescue" group that has a ferret. The unfortunate thing about it is, this group is run by the trashiest folk there is and the care for their animals is substandard. I don't want to give them my money, but I don't want to see this little weasel stuck with them or adopted to some loser.

[wehee=)]

I'm a ferret lover. My whole family just is so allergic that we can't take any:( Ferrets just are soooooo beautiful and funny;) Wish I could have one.... Now I just listen to my friend talking about her friends ferrets:)

[Queen of Poop]

Trouble, my ferret that had to be PTS last August was a Marshall Ferret. Didn't find out until much later the bad reputation that they have. Current ferrets (Sebastian and Miko) came to us from the local Ferret Rescue so I don't know where they came from originally. Our local ferret rescue is a wonderful bunch of people and we volunteer to help out at local events when they're in our end of the city.

[bckrazy]

QOP, I think you can check if they have MF tattoos in their ears...?

Pit Chick, I so agree! I've heard so many horror stories about MF, I would only buy from reputable breeders or adopt rescues. Our two boys now are rescued, they're brothers from MF.

Maybe you should offer some advice to the "rescue" group? sometimes people are completely oblivious to how pets should be treated, they might not know the care that ferrets require. Some constructive criticism might wake them up?...

[Pit Chick]

QOP, if your ferrets are from MF, they'll have 2 little blue dots in their ear and maybe even one between their toes on a back foot. One dot represents spay/neuter and the other represents descenting. I don't know why they do the one between the toes.

BC,
The woman that runs this group is one of those big know-it-alls that you can't give advice to. This woman already conned another shelter out of bookoos of money and pretty much put them out of business when she was on their board. They ended up getting us booted out of the adoption center at Petsmart because they were practically handing out unaltered puppies and kittens to people. They are another one of those groups that gives rescue a bad name and uses rescue as a cover to making a profit.

[Queen of Poop]

I will check the boys for the dots when I get home from work today.

We also had a ferret (Rascal) from Manitoba. He had the most brilliant yellow teeth you've ever seen. The vet had no idea why. He died at 2 years of age from a stomach hemorrage. An autopsy could not explain it. He was also a horrible biter. I believe he was genetically damaged from the start: accounting for his biting and yellow teeth and eventually his demise from the stomach hemmorage.

[Queen of Poop]

So, when I got home last night first thing I did was check the boys ears. Both have 2 nice little blue dots in the right ear. Guess they're Marshalls too. Sebastian has already had the adrenal surgery and is recovering - one day all the hair they shaved off of him for the surgery will fully grow back. Miko has no symptoms of adrenal disease as yet, hopefully he won't. He is however quite obsessive compulsive about cleanliness, constantly washing in the water bowl (hands and face).

[Pit Chick]

I hope it doesn't take a long time for Resen's hair to grow back after surgery, poor naked weasel.

Heineken used to dunk his head in the water bowl too. I don't know why, but it was funny. He was also the escape artist of the bunch. All the books and magazines I read said that if a ferret ever got lost outside of the house, they wouldn't be able to find their way back. Ha! He taught us the true meaning of "ferret proofing" the house after a couple of heart attacks. :o

[Queen of Poop]

Apparently they should grow their hair back in 3 weeks. Sebastian is filling in one patch at a time, first the arm spot where he had the IV, then the neck patch where they took blood, then along the incision, now he's working on growing back the hair on his side. Why it's taking so long is a mystery.

Funny that Heiniken was a dunker and escape artist, my Miko the dunker is also the escape artist.

I pray for good results for Resen.

[Pit Chick]

Those boys. :rolleyes:

Thanks. Whenever I'm able to get the surgery done, I'll be sure to post an update.

[Pit Chick]

Took Resen to the vet the other day. She has a lump on her mammary that just popped up over night a couple of weeks ago. That lit a fire under my rear to get her in no matter how much it would cost. The vet took some cells from the lump and didn't see anything that looked cancerous. They did an ultrasound and said her left adrenal gland is the size of a walnut. He said he hasn't seen one that big that wasn't malignant. :( He said since it was so big it would be too risky to do surgery so he gave her a Lupron injection in hopes of shrinking it enough to do surgery. I'll be taking her back in a month for a follow up.

[lv4dogs]

Originally posted by Pit Chick
Took Resen to the vet the other day. She has a lump on her mammary that just popped up over night a couple of weeks ago. That lit a fire under my rear to get her in no matter how much it would cost. The vet took some cells from the lump and didn't see anything that looked cancerous. They did an ultrasound and said her left adrenal gland is the size of a walnut. He said he hasn't seen one that big that wasn't malignant. :( He said since it was so big it would be too risky to do surgery so he gave her a Lupron injection in hopes of shrinking it enough to do surgery. I'll be taking her back in a month for a follow up.

I hope the lupron works. Sending good thoughts for yous!

[bckrazy]

I'm so sorry Pit Chick!! I hope your little Resen is ok... she's so young too. Hopefully she will recover from it easily!

[Queen of Poop]

I wish you all the best with Resen's surgery. Left adrenal is good, they can do something, right adrenal is usually not good at all.

[Pit Chick]

Thanks guys. I'll be updating again in a few weeks.