no cure. surgery is an option but its risky and its all too common for the tumors to come right back. i have two ferrets with adrenal disease and get lupron shots every month. its expensive but its worth not putting them through the misery of surgery when there is a good chance they won’t recover (they are both old).
as previous posters have stated, make sure they have a good 10 hours of darkness. if you are a night-owl then you need to have them in another room so that they can be in the dark.
its all theory though. i’m sure it helps their chances but there is no surefire way to prevent adrenal disease, sorry to say (my fuzzies are living proof).
if they get it, the important thing is to keep in mind that it is NOT a death sentence. just make sure you get them to a ferret specialist to go over your options.
also what is all-too-often overlooked: check their tails for black spots. one of my ferrets didnt lose any hair but the vet diagnosed his adrenal disease because of the spots on his tail.
# 5 July 2009 at 6:45 am
rampage said:
take it to a vet to find out
# 5 July 2009 at 6:45 am
Claudettebillie/ Mypetsc&b said:
There’s not much you can do, really. The only thing I can think of is to make sure they have LOTS of natural light so their adrenal glands don’t get messed up.
Also, this link ( http://www.hugawoozel.com/medical.html#problems ) says:
Adrenal disease – Adrenal problems are very common in ferret, but no one is for sure why this is. Some think early neuturing is the cause, others think prolonged light exposure is responsible, and yet others think that too much stress may also be a factor. The adrenal glands produce nessicary hormones that increase blood glucose levels, regulate electrolyte levels, increase musculature, and produce adrenaline. Basically, these are what gives your ferret his/her energy! As you can imagine, the adrenal glands are very important. With adrenal disease, a tumor forms on the adrenal gland and basically slows a ferret down. Most tumors occur on the left gland, which is easier to remove than the right. Once the gland is removed, symptoms usually gradually disappear.
Insulinoma is more like human diabetes than adrenal disease, IMHO. Insulinoma is a cancer that can be prevented from avoiding sugars and such.
To the answer who said that I was wrong- I meant lots of natural light as NATURAL. Not artificial because lots of natural light DOES have 10 hours of darkness.
# 5 July 2009 at 6:45 am
reijn said:
there is no cure. There are surgeries and medication that you can give your ferret in order to prolong its life but there is no definite cure. In a nutshell, your ferret becomes diabetic and ends up dying from diabetes. (over simplification). Its a sad process.
You can prevent it by not feeding your ferret anything that it would not eat in the wild (grains, sweets, etc).
Read Ferrets for Dummies. It will give you more detailed information about both the disease and what you can and cannot feed your fuzzbutt
# 5 July 2009 at 6:45 am
Lisa S said:
It’s not a hair loss disease.
Also, the person saying they need lots of light, actually the best way to prevent adrenal disease is by limiting light. Ferrets need 10 hours of complete darkness in order to keep their body’s hormones in "winter" mode. It is not triggered by cold, it’s by the length of the day.
Ferrets become adrenal because the longer days (more light, which includes your indoor lighting) triggers their body into the mating season. Even though the ferrets are spayed and neutered, they still retain the ability to create hormones, and they antagonize the adrenal glands until they become so big they have to be surgically removed.
This creates hair loss because in the summer, ferrets will shed the winter fur. But with a constant surplus of hormones, the hair will continue to fall out.
Complete darkness means pitch black in their room, or give them boxes in their cage to sleep in. Make sure all electronic lights (like red or green lights, alarm clock lights, etc) are covered or turned off.
You can give oral melatonin to your ferrets – http://miamiferret.org/melatonin.htm – it must be given at the same time each day a certain amount of time after sunrise.
Ferrets are more susceptible to adrenal when they are neutered at a young age, like pet shop ferrets. However, in places where ferrets are neutered at six months to a year, they also get it if they are kept inside and don’t have 10 hours.
It’s not a guarantee but if you manage to do both of those things you may very well have a healthy ferret.
no cure. surgery is an option but its risky and its all too common for the tumors to come right back. i have two ferrets with adrenal disease and get lupron shots every month. its expensive but its worth not putting them through the misery of surgery when there is a good chance they won’t recover (they are both old).
as previous posters have stated, make sure they have a good 10 hours of darkness. if you are a night-owl then you need to have them in another room so that they can be in the dark.
its all theory though. i’m sure it helps their chances but there is no surefire way to prevent adrenal disease, sorry to say (my fuzzies are living proof).
if they get it, the important thing is to keep in mind that it is NOT a death sentence. just make sure you get them to a ferret specialist to go over your options.
also what is all-too-often overlooked: check their tails for black spots. one of my ferrets didnt lose any hair but the vet diagnosed his adrenal disease because of the spots on his tail.
take it to a vet to find out
There’s not much you can do, really. The only thing I can think of is to make sure they have LOTS of natural light so their adrenal glands don’t get messed up.
Here are some links all about Adrenal disease
http://www.ferretcentral.org/faq/med/adrenal.html
http://www.ferret-universe.com/health/adrenal.asp
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=884047
http://www.ferret.org/pdfs/health/Adrenal_Disease.pdf
Also, this link ( http://www.hugawoozel.com/medical.html#problems ) says:
Adrenal disease – Adrenal problems are very common in ferret, but no one is for sure why this is. Some think early neuturing is the cause, others think prolonged light exposure is responsible, and yet others think that too much stress may also be a factor. The adrenal glands produce nessicary hormones that increase blood glucose levels, regulate electrolyte levels, increase musculature, and produce adrenaline. Basically, these are what gives your ferret his/her energy! As you can imagine, the adrenal glands are very important. With adrenal disease, a tumor forms on the adrenal gland and basically slows a ferret down. Most tumors occur on the left gland, which is easier to remove than the right. Once the gland is removed, symptoms usually gradually disappear.
Insulinoma is more like human diabetes than adrenal disease, IMHO. Insulinoma is a cancer that can be prevented from avoiding sugars and such.
To the answer who said that I was wrong- I meant lots of natural light as NATURAL. Not artificial because lots of natural light DOES have 10 hours of darkness.
there is no cure. There are surgeries and medication that you can give your ferret in order to prolong its life but there is no definite cure. In a nutshell, your ferret becomes diabetic and ends up dying from diabetes. (over simplification). Its a sad process.
You can prevent it by not feeding your ferret anything that it would not eat in the wild (grains, sweets, etc).
Read Ferrets for Dummies. It will give you more detailed information about both the disease and what you can and cannot feed your fuzzbutt
It’s not a hair loss disease.
Also, the person saying they need lots of light, actually the best way to prevent adrenal disease is by limiting light. Ferrets need 10 hours of complete darkness in order to keep their body’s hormones in "winter" mode. It is not triggered by cold, it’s by the length of the day.
Ferrets become adrenal because the longer days (more light, which includes your indoor lighting) triggers their body into the mating season. Even though the ferrets are spayed and neutered, they still retain the ability to create hormones, and they antagonize the adrenal glands until they become so big they have to be surgically removed.
This creates hair loss because in the summer, ferrets will shed the winter fur. But with a constant surplus of hormones, the hair will continue to fall out.
Complete darkness means pitch black in their room, or give them boxes in their cage to sleep in. Make sure all electronic lights (like red or green lights, alarm clock lights, etc) are covered or turned off.
You can give oral melatonin to your ferrets – http://miamiferret.org/melatonin.htm – it must be given at the same time each day a certain amount of time after sunrise.
Ferrets are more susceptible to adrenal when they are neutered at a young age, like pet shop ferrets. However, in places where ferrets are neutered at six months to a year, they also get it if they are kept inside and don’t have 10 hours.
It’s not a guarantee but if you manage to do both of those things you may very well have a healthy ferret.
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