Hair Loss but not Adrenal :-)

Question
I have a 3 yr old male who lost the fur on his back from shoulders to hips. His ultrasound was mostley neg. We thought he had adrenal disease. He is now growing his fur back completely. Could it be something else or can they grow fur again w/o adrenal tumor treatment.

Answer
Hi Cheryl:

Your ferret is right in the age bracket that is most commonly diagnosed with adrenal disease, so you were wise to follow through with an ultrasound.  Every now and then we see a ferret who just loses his fur, probably due to a hormonal change, then is grows back with no other indication that they have adrenal disease!  I'm thinking that your little one just may be one of these lucky guys.

Of course this doesn't mean that he may not develop tumors later in life.  He needs to be watched just as other ferrets need to be watched. If he should happen to lose his fur again, I would recommend another ultrasound rather than surgery - for the same reason you just learned :-)  There are always those little stinkers who love to befuddle science.  We don't really know why this happens, but it does.

Fur loss is usually the most obvious symptom that ferrets get when they have adrenal cancer/tumors.  If diagnosed early, hopefully any tumors have not had a chance to spread to other organs. For this reason, it IS always a good idea to get the ultrasound rather than automatically go to surgery with a ferret who has hair loss.  IF he starts showing tumor growth via ultrasound, then is time to do surgery.

For now, it looks like your little guy rolled the dice and won - at least for now.  Kudos to you for being such a good mommy that you followed thru with the ultrasound. Too many people don't even take them for testing OR surgery until the tumors fully develop, then also have had a chance to spread to other organs. Also, some ferrets just don't show any symptoms until their disease is pretty far progressed.  

The really good news?  Judging from the ones I've known, I don't think that a ferret who has had a 'close call' is necessarily any more likely to develop adrenal disease down the road than any other healthy ferret, i.e. the hair loss your ferret has experienced is NOT particularly a harbinger of future disease.  

Anytime a ferret loses fur, the ferret needs close examination for adrenal disease. Only a small number of those ferrets will get a 'false alarm' like your ferret did. *Most* actually do have adrenal tumors. Close monitoring and removal when symptoms first appear will give these little ones a chance to survive this nasty disease....and good mommies like you are leading the way!

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers