Ferrets Losing Hair Tail
Does my ferret have adrenal disease?
I have a 6 year old female ferret. She has lost all of her hair on her tail, and her hair on her body has considerably thin. She is a very small ferret, but seems like she may be thinning. She shows no sign of nesting or inflamed vulva, common signs of adrenal disease. Could this just be old age? Opinions please.
I brought her to the vet today. She has a tumor on her spleen, the blood work was done we don’t know the results yet if its cancerous. And no tests were ran but the doctor is very positive she does have adrenal disease. Thanks for your answers. And she won’t suffer. She will be kept comfortable, until her time comes. She seems to be pretty pain free right now. Thanks for your comments and any further advice or experiences on this let me know.
I’m guessing it is adrenal disease. She has the main signs of it.
Dealing with adrenal disease can be done in different ways, you can either opt for surgery to remove the affected gland or you can treat it with medication.
If your ferret is healthy otherwise and could survive a surgery, I would go that route. It is the only way that will actually cure the disease. After adrenal surgery ferrets can live out healthy lives.
You can give lupron injections as well. They are quite pricey and it only seems to work with some ferrets. With a lot of ferrets it doesn’t really help them as well. It’s a treatment, not a cure.
A cheaper treatment option which helps slow the disease, but it will not cure it, is melatonin. You can get your ferret a melatonin implant which lasts 4 months. It will help your ferret regrow hair and will help regulate their hormones better. This approach seems to prolong life for the ferret as well. The implants cost between $10-25 for 4 months, depending on where you get them. Many ferret shelters also sell the implants as well, and charge less than a vet. This can also be safely combined with other methods of treatment as well.
I run a ferret rescue and we usually give adrenal shelter ferrets a melatonin implant before we give them adrenal surgery. Usually if the implant doesn’t help them regrow hair, we know that there is cancer involved and that it has spread to other areas of the body. Usually then surgery isn’t an option anymore.
If you opt to not do surgery, I recommend the melatonin implants. They are relatively cheap, and we’ve had great success with them. They are manufactured by Melatek, and you can get your vet to order them from the company. You can do an online search for that company and you’ll find out all sorts of information about it.
Good luck, and I hope everything turns out alright.
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