From: Lynn McIntosh [faiml@uswest.net] Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2000 1:41 AM To: FAIMLanon; FAIML Cc: faiml@uswest.net Subject: FAIML #446; July 15, 2000: Urgent Post Ferret Adrenal/Insulinoma Mailing List (FAIML) #446; July 15, 2000 There are five messages in today's list: POST URGENT Nipper's adrenal / insulinoma surgery funny stools Melatonin Bare spots FERRET ADRENAL/INSULINOMA MAILING LIST (FAIML) is a list featuring support and information about adrenal and insulinoma diseases. It comes out in digest format three to six times per week, depending on the urgency and number of posts. It is the opinion, only, of subscribers, and is not intended as medical advice, comes with no guarantee of accuracy, and is not meant to replace the examination and medical oversight of a qualified veterinarian. If your ferret is exhibiting signs of illness please take him or her to the most ferret-experienced vet you can find. A ferret-experienced vet is one of the most important services you can provide for your ferret. TO POST: Write POST at the end of your subject heading (the more specific you can be in your subject heading, the better) and send to . URGENT POSTS: If you feel the message is urgent please mark it POST URGENT and I'll send it out to subscribers as soon as I can, then include the message in the next list. CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS: Please write POST ANONYMOUS after your subject heading if you don't want your address or last name published. SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE: Just use the one address for posts, subscription questions, requests, cancellations, comments, etc. The list is run by hand so just send me an email. ADRENAL/INSULINOMA WEBSITE and FAIML ARCHIVES/PHOTOS: For more info on adrenal and insulinoma diseases, check out Michael Janke's great web site: . Past FAIMLs are archived there, with a search feature, and Michael is kindly posting pictures of FAIML subscribers and their ferrets in a FAIML Album. FERRET CENTRAL WEBSITE and PAM GREENE's FERRET FAQs: Ferret Central Website is the grand intersection of ferret websites, at . You can also find the Ferret FAQs there, which include invaluable FAQs on insulinoma and adrenal diseases. I forward these two FAQs to all new subscribers, and will gladly send them upon request. I also send the "Disease Package", a file that tells how to get all six of Pamela Greene's FAQs on ferret diseases. Pam also has excellent FAQ's about general ferret care. FERRET MAILING LIST (FML): The FML has 3,000+ ferret-loving subscribers and the topic is simply ferrets, ferrets, and more ferrets. Moderated by Mr. Bill Gruber, it's a great source of ferret entertainment and information. Visit FERRET CENTRAL on the web (see paragraph above) for more info on the FML. To subscribe to the FML, send email to its moderator, Bill Gruber, at and ask to be added. You can also try subscribing automatically by sending email to with the command SUBSCRIBE FERRET in the body of the email. POST URGENT Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2000 21:15:49 -0700 From: contact@gan.ca Hi, I have a ferret who is on the verge of death. He has been vomiting non stop every time he eats for about two weeks. My ferret specialist vet has given up and thinks he will die this weekend. She says that he probably has a general cancer that is shutting his organs down (he just had a successful surgery for insulinoma and they did not find other tumors at that time). I have seen some articles about gastric ulcers on the internet, and in the hope that this is what he has, I am feeding him pepto-bismal in the dosage recommended. It seems to be having little effect though and he is eating almost nothing and directly vomiting up what he does consume. He has lost massive amounts of weight and is desperately hungry - pawing at his mouth non-stop and really trying to get food down. I don't know how long he can keep going like this. The vet tested him for kidney and liver failure and did an x ray for blockages -all of which showed nothing. Has anyone had any experiences with this kind of situation? Rebecca Aldworth Nipper's adrenal / insulinoma surgery Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 11:00:30 -0400 From: "Morgan, Annie" Over the past month, Nipper began losing some hair around his hind quarters, so I knew he had adrenal. I took him to the vet and we opted for surgery. We decided to do the insulinomas also. While my vet had him opened up, he found knots on his spleen and removed the spleen too. He had a biopsy done on the spleen knots and on his left adrenal. He said that his adrenal tumor was the largest one he's ever seen. It was somewhere between the size of a nickel and a quarter! I was amazed at Nipper's recovery. I picked him up 24 hours later, and he moved about just like normal! He's been doing great ever since. He goes in tomorrow to have the stitches removed. The biopsy came back and only the adrenal was carcinogenic. I just hope Nipper has an easy road from here on out! Annie, Nipper and Opie funny stools Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 18:18:51 EDT From: Cjbandit@aol.com Hi everyone, It's been a while since I've posted but that's good news! Bandit for the most part is doing great. Just a backdrop of info: he had both adrenals removed in April and his sodium potassium levels are good and indicate no need for hormone replacements. He had some type of bug that caused his bad breath and funny stools and when we treated him on clavinox he became nauseous (pawing at his mouth, had the dry heaves and no appetite). I immediately stopped the antibiotic cause I think that caused the stomach upset and the nausea stopped and so did the bad breath. I also took him to the vet to make sure nothing else was going on, well all blood work was normal and x-ray was fine indicating no blockage. Bandit's appetite got better along with his activity level and his stools were no longer green, yellow mush. Here's the thing his stools are still not normal they go from black to light brown seedy very seedy and sometimes yellowish color. I'm real concerned about this seedy look, what can I do??? I even tried carafate but it's just making his stool looser. Thanks for any advice you can give, Christina & Bandit Melatonin Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 11:55:41 -0500 From: teckart@oznet.ksu.edu Excerpts taken from "The Miracle of Melatonin" by Dr. Victor Herbert and Dr. Ruth Kava (http://www.hcrc.org/contrib/acsh/articles/melaton.html) Melatonin is a "hormone" produced from the amino acid tryptophan by the pineal gland, a small pinecone-shaped gland in the center of the brain. Melatonin production normally peaks around the time of puberty and then decreases with age. The most rapid decline usually occurs after age 40. (If we age ferrets at 1 year for each of our 10 years that would mean a normal decrease would occur around 4 yrs old). The production and secretion of melatonin increase tenfold in the dark and signal the body that it is time to sleep. Very high doses of melatonin have been found to affect other hormones: Estrogen, testosterone and thyroid hormone production are all decreased by high-dose melatonin. Melatonin also may affect the immune system. The hormone may be viewed as giving immunity a "boost"; but this is not necessarily a positive effect for some people, including those with autoimmune disorders. Richard Wuttman, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has studied the effects of melatonin on sleep and has found the maximal effective sleep-inducing dose to be 0.1 to 0.3 milligrams (mg). Yet the most widely available over-the-counter dosage of melatonin is 2 to 3 mg -- in other words, up to 10 times the maximal effective dose (supplements in even larger amounts are also available). Hugs to all. tle Troy Lynn Eckart Ferret Family Services http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~sprite/ffs.html http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Haven/5481/ Please sign up to support our charity http://www.iGive.com/html/ssi.cfm?cid=46&mid=58395 Bare spots Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 08:41:41 -0400 (EDT) From: "abc fgh" My 2 ferrets that have the holes with bare spots. I went to the vet and found out that were fighting. They both bit each other and made the bare spots. They have been together for 4 years now. I don't have the space to separate them. Any suggestions on how to have them quit fighting. I tried the sprays and rubs. The vet gave me a cream to keep them off each other. It hasn't worked to well. I discipline them by putting them in an old playpen I have for a minute or two as a kind of time out. This works temporarily. thanks ----------------------- End of FAIML #446 -------------------------