MELATONIN as preventative approach

Question
Hi,
I have three ferrets (i know there like potato chip "You can't just have one!"), the oldest one (2.5 yrs) was just diagnosed with adrenal disease, he is losing hair, itching all the time, thirsty a lot it seems, tired all the time but blood work came back good and has no other problems ... My vet gave him lupron and we are probably going to get him surgery... So I did a lot of research on this disease and i was wondering if i could give my other ferrets MELATONIN as a preventative approach?? I will watch them and make sure my my are reacting normally but i feel as though i need to do something beside watch the rest of them get this disease since it is so high in ferrets. Do you think this is appropriate???

Answer
Hi Maria!

Kudos to you for researching the disease, for realizing that Lupron only stops the visible signs of the disease, and the disease itself continues its destruction inside the ferret; i.e., Lupron is NOT a cure for adrenal disease. It can sometimes be used instead of surgery to help a ferret be more comfortable for a longer time if the ferret is not a surgical candidate also. The important thing to remember is that Lupron only makes things look good on the outside and relieves the obvious symptoms for a time and eventually the adrenal tumors will win the battle; it it NOT a cure, unfortunately.

On the other hand, there seem to be MANY well-informed ferret owners giving melatonin to their ferrets as a preventative, however I'm not sure there has been a study yet to confirm that it does make a difference.  Some ferret owners I know who use it are very experienced ferret owners and they do swear by it, which stands as pretty good evidence of efficacy to me.

As far as I'm concerned, it's probably a good preventative and certainly doesn't do any harm.

Best of luck to your little one who is about to undergo surgery.  It sounds like he is in great hands.  If you haven't set up a hospital cage for a ferret before, be sure to write again before he goes to surgery and  I'll be happy to help you with some suggestions to make him comfortable and least likely to pull his stitches out.

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers