From: Lynn McIntosh [faiml@uswest.net] Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2000 3:21 AM To: FAIMLanon; FAIML Subject: FAIML #493; Dec. 30, 2000 Ferret Adrenal/Insulinoma Mailing List (FAIML) #493; Dec. 30, 2000 There are eight messages in today's list: Hi I was wondering Quick Question Atypical hair loss; Update Martin Replies: FAIML #492; Dec. 23, 2000 Action Jackson Remembering Mandrake Bilateral adrenal Laura & Clint 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 and send to . Remember: the more specific you can be in your subject heading the greater the chance someone will be able to find your important info when searching the archives. 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 get it; then I'll 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, check out Michael Janke's adrenal/insulinoma 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 new subscribers the "Disease Package", a file that tells how to get all six of Pamela Greene's FAQs on ferret diseases. Pam has also compiled 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. Plus, it comes out daily. I encourage people to cross post on the FML and FAIML to get the most possible exposure and feedback. Visit FERRET CENTRAL website (you can find its address in the 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. Date sent: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 08:26:26 -0800 From: "Lorraine Hilliard" Subject: Hi I was wondering Hi I was wondering if anyone could offer their advice on one of my ferrets. He is nine years old and has a bad heart condition. He has been on furosimide and enapril for two years now and during a recent ultrasound I was told he had a huge cyst in his prostate, an abdomen full of fluid and a right adrenal tumor. The vet drained 600 ml of fluid out of his abdomen, but now he only urinates a little bit and every few days the vet has to apply pressure to his bladder to get the urine out. She says his bladder is extremely stretched. The cirtical care hospital vet was going to operate on him but they took another ultrasound and said his heart problem was too bad and he also had liver damage and it was too risky and nothing could be done. I read on the internet that Lupron and Lysodren helped ferrets with adrenal tumors and prostate problems and I was just wondering if anyone knew if either would help with his problem or is his bladder too damaged by now. are ferrets on heart medication able to take this. He is eating and drinking well and still shows an interest in things around him although he does have hindend weakness. Thanks for your help. Date sent: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 22:39:26 -0500 From: "Dale Nupp" Subject: Quick Question Hello All: I hope all of your fuzzies are doing well. My Odo was diagnosed with insulinoma nine months ago. He had surgery and later went on prednisone and proglycem. I started feeding him A/D and baby food. After a while the hand feedings seemed to be helping him so much that the medicine was withdrawn. So, at least for the moment, Odo's insulinoma seems controlled with diet only. I hand feed him three times a day. Its amazing how much he can pack into that little belly :o). My question is whether or not he still eats his kibble or is living only on the hand feedings. I have not seen him eat any kibble in months but I am not in his room 24 hours a day. Does anyone know if fuzzies stop eating by themselves when they are hand fed? Dale Date sent: Tue, 26 Dec 2000 13:28:36 -0500 From: "Carrie Miller" Subject: Atypical hair loss; Update Martin I have a response to the questions about atypical hair loss and an update on Martin! Martin is doing wonderfully...we are 4 weeks post- surgery, and he is acting like a kit agin. His fur is slowly coming back, except that he actually he looks like a punk ferret, since he lost all the hair on his back except on long stripe down the middle, and with the rest starting to slowly come back in, he looks absolutely hysterical! He is eacting normal, and playing like crazy. You can definately tell he's feeling better. As far as the atypical hair loss goes, I definately agree with Lisa. Martin didn't show any of the "typical hair loss patterns". Martin lost a little hair on his tail, but no more than he would during a normal shedding season, most alarming was his ankle area on his hind legs. Those went completely bald and we're still waiting for that to come back. He did start to loose most of the hair on his back, but only after we had already gotten his diagnosis (we had a one-week time frame between the sonogram and the surgery). In only a weeks time, he looked like we had dipped him in Nair! Since there were no other changes, (his behavior/eating was completely normal for him), the vet thought at first that he had allergies. We thought it might be our laudry detergent, his lambs wool bedding, the air fresheners in the house, you name it, we tried changing it. He had all sorts of skin scrapes and allergy tests. Luckily, our vet was very thorough and insisted on doing a sonogram (even though the other vet in the office didn't think we needed to) and found his tumor. SO, my point is, any hair loss is a definate bad sign, don't wait for the normal patterns! Once again, I'd like to thank EVERYONE who responded to my questions/concerns about Martin. You really helped me keep myself calm and together during the whole ordeal! p.s. On a different note, I've been reading it's better for ferrets socailly to have 3 ferrets rather than just 2 (in case of a death/illness). Is there any merit to this? Thanks again! Carrie (& Matin & Timmy) Date sent: Mon, 25 Dec 2000 21:14:50 -0500 From: "Bruce Williams, DVM" Subject: Re: FAIML #492; Dec. 23, 2000 Dear Laura: The drug that you are thinking about is Casodex, although Lupron may do just as well . Casodex is n oral drug available as a 50 mg tablet and appears to reverse straining to urinate, aggression and return-to-male sexual behavior. Most Most pharmacies should be able to compound it into a liquid. The compounded solution should be refrigerated and shaken well before administering at this dosage - 5 mg/kg once a day until all clinical signs resolve (which they will likely do following surgery.) However, if the signs aren't very severe, it probably is not necesary. You may want to combine one shot of Lupron with the adrenal surgery at this point. When surgery is a viable option, as it appear to be with Clint, and the urinary signs are not significant at this point, the surgery will probably take care of most of the problem. Let's get it done as quickly as possible. With kindest regards, Bruce Williams, DVM >Thanks to all who responded to my post about Clint (there were too >many to reply to individually right now!)- I plan on getting in touch with >the vet today to schedule surgery for hopefully sometime early next >week. ( We will be out of town for a couple of days this weekend - >family members will be ferret sitting) Someone mentioned a >medication that can shrink/ease the prostate problems while waiting for >surgery. Anyone know what it is? Date sent: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 20:20:12 -0500 From: "Sarah Manningsmith" Subject: Action Jackson This doesn't have a whole lot to do with adreanal or insulinomic issues, but I needed to talk to other people who understand how very special fuzzies are. A week before Christmas, we lost our one and a half year old, Action Jackson. From what I've recently read, it sounds like he had that hema-something cancer; most of the symptoms match. It was just so quick. A couple of weeks ago, he started walking around and flopping on the ground. He lost about 40 grams in a week (we've weighed the ferrets everyday since going through ECE with Konrad). So off to the vet we went. We did the blood work and the xrays. The x-ray showed his spleen, liver, and heart were all enlarged. Four horrible waiting days later, we got the blood work back.. Everything was normal except his white count was through the roof (but not the bad white cells that indicate cancer). It looked like a very bad infection, so we started him on meds. Less than a week later, we found him in his cage. Upon necropsy, the vet learned that his spleen had burst. He thinks that due to the anemia, Jackson probably just went to sleep. This is what I hold on to; he looked so peaceful. I just can't believe we've lost him; we were so concerned about what he'd do when we lost Konrad (who, BTW, seems to be doing OK except for looking for Jackson). Konman just hasn't seemed to respond to the Lupron, although the pryglocem and prednisone seem to working. Jackson was an amazing little boy. Even when he was a baby, he refused to sleep. He would litterally play for HOURS at a time (without any breaks). He earned his aditional name, Runs with Scissors, when he cleverly snuck up onto the coffee table one night while I was working on a craft project and ferreted away my scissors. We have had to retire so many toys: he had knotty toys (the kind dogs play tug-o-war with) that all had specific homes in his cage (and woe be to he who tried to move the knotty toys), he had a purple stuffed ferret from Petco (altered to remove any dangerous parts) that was just slightly smaller than he was but he would drag that thing everywhere, and he had an old piece of jean belt that I had sewn together that had what I can only assume were the BEST tasting belt loops in the world. Jackson was the sweetest ferret; he knew when I had had a bad day and would make a complete clown of himself until he got me to laugh. I'll never forget the time he thought he could jump up onto the dining room table; he tried for hours with no avail but never gave up. Now, I'm trying to make some sense of this whole thing. I want to start some charity fund raisers for research into ferret health. I found what looks like a great organization on the AFA that funds all sorts of research. However, I'm also at the point that I want to find some sort of research into MF. I don't know what can be done, but I want to do something. I've had 3 MF ferrets, and they've all had cancer of some kind or another. Does anyone know of a group that's looking into MF's breeding and early altering practices? I'm sorry for the legth of the post and any spelling errors; I don't always care about spell checks. I hope you're all having good holidays and I wish you all a healthy and happy new millenium. Sarah, Dave, Konrad, and the cats, Jinx and Bagheera Date sent: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 17:56:04 EST From: SBrown9530@aol.com Subject: Remembering Mandrake In a message dated 12/20/2000 3:26:15 AM Central Standard Time, faiml@uswest.net writes: << Remembering Mandrake... >> Lucie, I'm so sorry for your loss of Mandrake. We do what we "think" is best for these babies, and at times they seem to know best. I know you miss that little girl, and I grieve with you. I know by now she's met my Billy, Jay, Cheba and Chapper and are all playing at the Rainbridge with their brothers, sisters and new found friends. Again, I'm so sorry for your loss. Sandi Date sent: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 10:06:39 EST From: Cjbandit@aol.com Subject: Bilateral adrenal Hi Anne, I think I e-mailed you personally in the past regarding my ferret Bandit who had bilateral adrenal surgery with DR.Weiss. Just a brief recap- Bandit had adrenal tumors in both the right and left adrenal, Dr. Weiss surgically removed the left and froze the right with cryosurgery. Bandit is doing wonderfully and has been fortunate enough not to need hormone replacements, he must have some adrenal tissue somewhere but not enough to hurt him and just enough to keep him well. I had suggested that there was a pill or med that helped shrink the prostate other than the lupron shot (althought that's a good idea too) but from what DR.Weiss told me this pill would work quickly -For the life of me I can't remember what it's called but if you call or e-mail Dr.Weiss he can tell you. Can someone give her his e-mail address and phone # cause I know he moved and I don't know it. I would really questions your vets ability to do the surgery, it surprises me that he didn't suggest the tennassee panel or ultra sound and is wi lling to wait till the disease is more progressive. I would get a second opinion. Please keep us posted. Thanks, Christina Date sent: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 10:12:17 EST From: Cjbandit@aol.com Subject: Laura & Clint Hi Laura, I just posted an e-mail to Ann regarding bilateral adrenal but I was really thinking more of you when I sent it. So please read it... Get in touch with Dr.Weiss about the pill to shrink the bladder it's suppose to work faster than the Lupron. Also I would get a second opinion your vet isn't giving you the greatest advice for someone experienced with adrenal disease. He should have reccommended the Tennassee Panel right off the bat...Find a good vet and don't wait to long.. Keep in touch and Good luck Christina ---------------------- End of FAIML #493 ------------------------