WILLOW'S RECOVERY DIARY
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Willow December 01 '07

Willow, a beautiful ferret - about 7 years old now.
Willow April 29 '07

Willow, over 2 years after her operation. Mmmm....tadpoles!!!
Willow Nov 11 '06

Willow, a year and half after her operation. Looking sleek in her winter coat.
April 03 '05
March 27 '05
March 20 '05
March 13 '05

Willow being offered ferretone treat in a squeezy bottle - the only way to get her to be still.
March 06 '05
Feb 29 '05
Pre-Op
Willow lost most of her fur by Feb 05

ADRENAL DISEASE INFO

Click here for information on diagnosing and treating adrenal disease.


WILLOW'S DIARY & ADRENAL DISEASE INFO

22 July 2006

Whilst worrying about Willow and her breathing, we didn't notice how ill Bailey had been. He passed away only a couple of weeks now. I still feel that loss acutely. They're so small but they wheddle their way into your hearts in such a big way.

Well, Willow is still snuffling. She been double checked and the vet hasn't really come up with any ideas but as long it's not in her lungs I suppose it's ok. She doesn't seem bothered by it....but then again Bailey didn't show any signs of discomfort until right till the end!

To be on the safe side, we took her back to the vets as on the last X-ray taken, the vet saw a shadow and thought we should double check what's going on. Luckily, nothing, so we're all really pleased.

26 May 2006

Willow had been a little snuffley on and off over winter and just put it down to the cold, damp and catching a cold from us. Over the last 3 weeks she had been sneezing quite a lot and then was left with an odd honking in her nose and possibly her chest. Within herself she seems fine and was quite energetic. We took her to our normal vet who treated her with a weeks worth of Batril, but there seemed to be no improvement. The vet scared us by saying that she thought Willow had fluid in her lungs and told us to visit our ferret vet specialist. So off to Upminster we went.

He gave her a very thorough check up including chest x-rays and scans. Anyhow, he noticed that her left top canine was discoloured and thought this could be the cause of her snuffling. Her chest sounded clear. So under anaethestic he pulled her tooth. The thought being that it was affecting her sinuses as the root was infected. Well 2 days later she's not snuffling. We will wait to see how she improves.


WILLOW'S RECOVERY DIARY
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04 October 2005

Willow continues to thrive, you wouldn't know that she was so ill only a few months back. We so pleased.

03 July 2005

Just to update everyone since the last post. Willow has grown her fur back to the normal length and has been living outside. You would never know how ill she was by the way that she's so lively and plays as hard as our boisterous 1 year hoblet. She's back to her old tricks again. She's doing really well.

03 April 2005

Well, the photo says it all. Willow has got her health back and her fur and she is beautiful and knows it. I didn't realise how much weight she lost when she was ill, presumably because it occured over a long period of time. But she a beautiful, stocky, healthy playful little ferret now and long may she stay this way. Her breathing seems to have improved too.

27 March 2005

I don't know if you can see from the photos that Willows fur has grown in a little longer. It's about 1cm long and she's gone from sleek and silky to a bit bristly now. You can see the darker patterning around her legs growing in and she's growing back her full mask down her nose. Last week she looked a bit a like a panda as it had just got darker around her eyes. One thing that is bothering me is her breathing - she is still rattly and sneezy on and off in her nose. It's been a month or so now and I would have thought if it was a normal cold it would have cleared up by now. I will have to mention it again to the vets.

20 March 2005

It's amazing, last week I thought it was just my imagination that her skin was taking on her sable patterning...and by mid-week this week Willow had grown a little ferret crew-cut. Today the fur is short and silky as though she'd had a no. 2 shave. She looks beautiful, like a burmese patterning. In fact, I think I'm gonna shave all the rest of my ferrets!!!!

Her vulva still hasn't gone down completely and she's still sneezing a bit on and off, but she's very much back to her old self. Yesterday, the weather was unseasonally hot so I put both her and Bailey in the outside cage with all their friends, which they really enjoyed.

After 4 weeks she's gone from really very bald to short, silky and furry and looks full of vitality.


13 March 2005

All week, I thought it was just my imagination that Willow was growing new fur...in fact on closer inspection it seems as though she's lost a little more around the tops of her legs and around her eyes.

However, by the end of this week, and I didn't dare believe it...but Willow is stubbly. You can see in the photos that her skin is darker where her polecat pattern appears which is the hair follicles growing just under the skin. By today, she is actually stubbly with tiny little spikes of fur and along her flanks some new fluffy white undercoat.

Her vulva is still enlarged, but is smaller than last week, and she has still be sneezing a little and is a little rattly in her nose. Some days it seems worst than others. She is now eating dry kibble and meat and loves to play with the other ferrets, getting back to her normal self of running rings around the boy ferts and being a little terror.

06 March 2005

So it's been almost 2 weeks since her op. Willow was still quite sneezy at the beginning of the week and feeling a little low. Wednesday she went to the vets for a check up and to have her remaining stitch taken out. Over this end of the week she does seem to have improved, although she is still a little rattly in her nose.

I've noticed that she's feeling more robust and wants to play rough with the other ferrets. Bingo is a bit of a bully and bites her hard even though she's not got any fur to protect her, but she engages him in play. Before she would just run away. Although she still looks skinny, she feels like she's putting weight on and her vulva is continuing to shrink - albeit a lot slower than I thought it would. Also, I don't know if it's my imagination or not, but I think around her shoulders and her rump you can just see the hair trying to start growing - the skin is just a shade darker in those areas. (See photos)

27 Feb 2005

It's just been a few days since her operation. When we brought her home, she was quite bright, but we noticed that she seemed to have caught a respiritory infection, so I was a bit concerned about that. It is however clearing up, so I'm less worried. She's also on a broad spectrum antibiotic to cover her for any infection after the op. so that should also help.

Her skin is less sticky to touch and the redness has gone down. She's hardly scratching at all which must be more comfortable for her. Any external bruising from the op. has cleared up and she doing well. She has also lost a sweet pungent odour that she developed. But as can be seen from the photos her vulva is still swollen. The incision site is very tidy and was stuck together with surgical glue which is neater than stitches and hopefully doesn't have the problems associated with dexterous little animals (just like Willow) pulling her stitches out! She did have two which I did notice her tugging at.

24 Feb 2005

Willow was booked in for her adrenal op. on Tuesday. We took her down to the vet who was extremely caring and understanding. Even before we went down, he took the time to explain and discuss her condition with us and never once made us feel like we were taking us his time or bothering him.

We were all hoping that it would be a left adrenal which is more common, as a right adrenal problem is difficult and could be life-threatening to operate out. However, it turns out that Willow has a right adrenal which the vet had not come across before, but thanks to his skill he was able to take it out successfully.

Willow is back home with us, and apart from a very large incision area and bruising seems to be doing very well. She has been injected with a steroid (Prednisone) to stablise her after the op. She's also on anti-biotics.

Summary

Last year over the summer, I noticed that Willow had a very slight discharge from her vulva. Now it wasn't enough to make me worried and she seemed very healthy and energetic in every other way. In October 2004, I noticed the hair from the base of her tail/spine had dropped out. Large clanging bells started ringing and I instantly thought adrenal disease. I took her to the vets a couple of weeks later at which point the fur along her back had started thinning.

The vet wanted to be cautious and wait to see how things progressed thinking it might be mites or seasonal hair loss. I still felt that it was adrenal, but was willing to go along with the wait and see scenario. By December, her fur was very thin and her vulva had swelled which is abnormal for a spayed jill, but very indicative of adrenal disease. I knew that she had it.

I took Willow back to the vets in January at which point the vet was still cautious. He however, conceded that she probably did have adrenal disease, but he was not familiar with treating it in ferrets. I went away on a crusade to find out how to treat Willow and to keep my vet informed of my findings.

I found out lots of information and a summary of how to treat Adrenal Disease in the UK can be found here. My vet wanted to follow the proper proceedure, so although Willow was presenting typical adrenal symptoms, he wanted a blood test sent off to confirm diagnosis. It is possible that retained uterine tissue could also cause these symptoms. However, if you are really sure that that your ferret is presenting adrenal symptoms and you have decided that surgery is the way to go, I would not waste your money on this test, as we were told that the results were inconclusive.

I was of the opinion that ferrets in the UK don't get adrenal disease, even some people who had kept ferrets for years and were experienced told me the same. I didn't have a clue as to how to treat her.

What to do?

My only contact with a large group of ferret knowledgeable people is with the Friendly Ferret UK discussion list which has proved to be invaluable. I also searched across the UK Internet and found a few more people that were dealing with adrenal disease with their ferrets. So ferrets in the UK DO get adrenal.