adrenal ferret

Question
My Zorro is 6 years old, he has been diagnosed with adrenal gland disease.  He received his first Lupron shot 11/12/2009.  He does not act sick at all, only has hairloss on rump and underside of tail. The vet said she gave him 200cc's, I do not know how this converts to mgs or whatever and want to know if that is an adequate amount of medication to see results if the Lupron is going to work for him.  He is peeing fine, has great energy, eats well and makes me laugh everyday. He weighs 2.2 lbs. She said if he does not respond in 3-4 months she will consider surgery because he is in excellent condition. Do you think this is the best protocol for his situation? He is the best pet ever!

Answer
Hi Beverly:

My ferret gets 2mg Leuprolide Depot - it is intended to be a six month injection, but is generally accepted that it only lasts about three or four months. Like you, my math isn't good  
so I'm not sure how your ferret's dosage compares to my Gilbert's dosage. Since your vet is saying to wait 3-4 months to assess the results, I'm thinking it must be the same - because that would be the instructions for a Depot injection. (The "other" lupron choice of injections is a monthly one and I don't know what the mg or mcg is on that one either for sure - I leave that to the vets and pharmacists because they have to figure it according to the ferret's weight also). Anyway, it looks like your vet is right on. I would say to just watch especially for any difficulty in the litterbox, especially with a six year old male, they can have enlarged prostate glands which presses on the urethra and makes it difficult for them to pee. You would see him standing too long in the litterbox, and/or dribbling  when he comes out of the litterbox. I've even heard stories of them whining while standing in the litterbox if it's really bad. The bladder *can* rupture in severe cases....definitely NOT a concern for you tho because your little man has had lupron, which will shrink that gland as time goes by.

At the end of about 3 or 4 months you will need to decide whether the improvement you see in your ferret is sufficient, or if you feel he needs surgery. Usually if the ferret is otherwise healthy, surgery is safe for a six year old ferret. A lupron trial before surgery is a good idea though (I like your vet :-). If you decide to, you can just keep him on Lupron Depot injections every four months, but that can get expensive if he lives to be 8 or 9 years old - BUT you MUST understand that lupron only masks the symptoms - the tumors are still growing inside the ferret and the cancer will continue to move to other organs of his body and he will die of the tumors eventually. If you send him to surgery and he comes through the surgery successfully, he will be CURED of adrenal disease and can go on to live to a ripe old age, hopefully with no more adrenal disease (it can always come back in the other gland unless both glands are removed and if they are, then he must have medication to replace the hormone they produce in his body).

One other thing I want to stick in here - if only your ferret's rump is getting thin fur, I don't want you to rush into surgery. I rushed into surgery with Gilbert and when my vet got inside, she could not locate his adrenal gland....the gland itself is only the size of the tip of a pencil when healthy and it had not enlarged enough to be found within all the other bumpy lumpy things inside a ferret (and my vet is very experienced too)..so, even tho he had adrenal surgery, he still has to have lupron injections every 3-4 months (the double whammy). Just something for you to think about. You might want to wait up to six months or so just to be sure.

One last word from experience - I like your vet and I'm sure you probably do too - but I do know that cost of adrenal surgeries can vary from $200 to $1,000 depending on where you are having the surgery done. Excellent vets in larger cities seem to charge less (at least out west here in Arizona) so much difference in price that it's often cost effective to check around and consider a vet in a larger city, drive and stay in a motel close to the vet's office - stay for a day or two, then drive home and be $500 or so ahead of the game. Just something to consider. If you get to that point, write to me again and I'll give you lists of vets in cities cose to you so you can check; also shelters near you because they always know the most experienced and cheapest vets and are a great source of information in times like that.  So, let me know if I can be of help if that time comes.

Best of luck - give that little man a big hug for me!

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers