IBD/ Adrenal/ Diet

[Deleted]

I dontknow if any of you remember about my friends ferret who has a stomach issue, anyway long story short this is what I know: She got him as a baby named Slinky, marshalls ferret, started on marshalls food, adopted a 2nd ferret boy 2 yrs old, fostered an elderly adrenal girl. Swithced them to zupreem, and then to zupreem grain free. Around the time of the switch to grain free the elderly girl died Slinky started to have some digestive issues all though not that noticable around this time, either from the diet change or the death i dont know. Both boys got depressed with the girls death. SHe had another ferret that had beed surrendered to her rescue that she had had for a while, so she introduced her to the boys a few weeks after the old girls death. After a few months that girl up and died (turns out she had a huge mass in her abdomen) more depression. I told her that the zupreem was not very good for ferrets so she switched to Evo. Major digestive issues for Slinky, the other boy was fine. SO after a few months and bad poop and weight loss I got them on orijen 6 fish, good for a while but started to have issues again. Now having a bad bowel movement at least 2 times a week. Also he is loosing fur and so possibly showing signs of adrenal. He will be 5 in May.





SO, what can I do to help him? Should she start giving him melatonin? How much and its suposed to be at a certain time of day right? ALso is there a way to get what I am assuming his IBD under control?

[Sherry]

He looks adrenal to me. Either monthly lupron or a des implant is needed. A melatonin implant, or oral melatonin approx 7-9 hrs after sunrise daily. It must be those times, and it must be daily to work. It's quite possible the IBD is adrenal related and will calm once the adrenal is treated.

[katt]

That isn't possibly showing signs of adrenal, IMO that is completely, definitely, absolutely 110% adrenal. She needs to get him either on Lupron or Des. A melatonin implant in addition to one of those will help with the hair regrowth.

[Heather]

I so agree with Sherry....from those photos and the description of symptoms...adrenal. Melatonin is great for the superficial symptoms...hair loss being the big one. It does help a bit but it doesn't really slow the disease at all and it doesn't appear to affect things like the stomach upsets (IBD, ulcers) or sexual aggression (he doesn't have it but it's another symptom that the melantonin doesn't appear to touch). I would suggest lupron (not my favourite but it does work for early stages) or DES. Both can be used with the melatonin to help grow hair back. I've found once the adrenal is treated the stomach upsets often ease off or stop all together.
ciao

[Deleted]

The fur loss has happened in the last 3 weeks most of it being the past week

[Heather]

When the fur does go, it drops off quickly and sometimes it's more you don't notice it until you look and realize that hey....my ferret is naked (not really...but it suddenly hits you that they're missing a lot of fur). I can remember looking at an old photo of Lady "B" sleeping with Odin in a sleep box and astounded that I hadn't seen that she was adrenal at that time. I took her in about a month afterwards because I thought she looked adrenal. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't see one of the primary symptoms when it first started to show.
ciao

[Sherry]

It's usually come that fast in ours as well. The ONLY one who fit typical symptoms was Sinnead. The other 4 adrenals we've had since then would have been considered atypical by a number of vets. But the lupron eliminated all the symptoms every time.

[Heather]

Patchy hair loss or rat tail has not been atypical of the symptoms that I observed in my fuzzies. I can remember when I first started out looking for the loss of fur on the tail because that was what I was told to look for. I began to see and recognise other minor and secondary symptoms...things like gastric issues, lethargy, funky stools and realizing that these too were symptoms, not necessarily seeing that infamous rat tail. I now realize that there are various symptoms and a ferret may exhibit some, all or none of the "classical" symptoms. As far as the classical rat tail...I've had 2...Fun-Go, who never has grown more than 5 hairs on that tail of his and Odin who you would never know is adrenal to look at him at this moment
ciao