The following is courtesy of Huronna:
Back In November, when we had a bunch of Florida ferret owners and shelter people at my house, there was a discussion regarding the usage of Melatonin. Someone mentioned that they used Melatonin on adrenal ferrets that were not good surgical candidates.
Silveretta, who prior to moving to Florida, had received Lupron for adrenal, and then in Dec. 2000, had her left adrenal removed. (Once we moved here). About 4 months after surgery, and regrowth of much of her hair, she again began to lose her hair and her vulva was swollen quite a bit. Apparently it is not uncommon to remove one adrenal and then the other becomes affected.
She became totally bald on her back, most of her tail and stomach. Since it had not even been 6 months since her last surgery, plus she was close to 7 and my vet did not have right adrenal surgery capabilities, we opted for another Lupron shot. This was in August 2001.
Now the get together was in Nov. and I really didn't listen too closely to the conversation about Melatonin, thinking....hmm doesn't affect me.....BUT
By the beginning of January, Mika who was only 3 1/2 , began to have a very coarse and sparse coat. But no tail hair loss and no total loss anywhere, just sparse. Silveretta, whose hair had totally grown back from the Lupron (except a dime spot right where her tail joins her butt) was beginning to swell again in the vulva.
I did some reading, checked out some posts on other sites, and decided that I would try the Melatonin. I buy it in Wal-Mart in the 1 mg size. I use a pill slicer to cut it in 1/4's. Don't know why I did this, as I have 4 ferrets and could just use one pill and dose them all at the same time. I began by giving them a dose every day...1/4 pill per ferret.
Within a month, Mika's fur became as soft as silk and filled out all over her body. By the end of two months, Silveretta's dime bald spot was covered with new hair. Plus her hair is soft and longer all over her body. I have seen no change in either Dexie or Mischief, though they didn't have anything wrong with them.
One thing, Melatonin is sort of a tranquillizer or sleep enhancer and when I was giving it to them every day, I noticed that they were sleeping a lot more. I now give it to them every other day.
Hopefully other people with Melatonin experience will add their posts to this one.
Important Announcement
