Mandy and her brother Kingsley came here from another shelter. After an ultrasound and glucose test on Kingsley, we knew he needed adrenal surgery, but was on the waiting list.  Mandy had a radical masectomy done, but no ultrasound, so we didn't know she also needed adrenal surgery. Off they went to stay in a foster home until the vet bills were paid down enough to get Kingsley his surgery. 

At the time, we did not know that the previous shelter was giving ferrets Lupron shots, and we didn't know that it only took a couple of months before the shots wore off.  Little did we know the effects of the Lupron on adrenal disease.  There are three different types of adrenal disease, and Lupron shots had no effect on Mandy's type of tumor. The Lupron only covered up the symptoms, while the adrenal tumor kept growing inside her.  As their foster mom puts it “It took about 6-8 weeks to go from a gorgeous girl with a full, healthy coat of hair to a dandelion right before the wind spreads the seeds.  I noticed she started to show signs of thinning hair on her tail. Within 2 weeks the thinning had progressed, you could see her flesh through the hair on her tail without parting her hair, and she was starting to thin in her shoulders, you could just barely see the pink of her skin. Within the next 4 weeks the thinning had spread to her whole body, and by the last week you could pull out her hair in handfuls. You could see the pink of her skin all over without parting her hair.”

Though not at the top of the waiting list, Mandy was rushed to the vet for surgery, and what the vet saw when he opened her up is still beyond belief to me.  An adrenal tumor the size of a tennis ball!  No exaggeration!  Also, the tumor had grown into Mandy's left kidney, so it had to be removed along with the tumor. Mandy was not supposed to make it through surgery, but she did. Then she wasn't supposed to make it through the first night, but she did.  She felt the need to pull through for us, and she is still with us today.  We've decided that she and her brother Kingsley will stay with their foster mom forever.

I recently got to visit the two kids, and Mandy is an entirely new ferret. She was always active and happy prior to her surgery, acting like there wasn't anything wrong, but if you saw her now, you wouldn’t recognize her personality if you knew her before.  I am convinced the adrenal tumors have a major effect on their quality of life.