HCG (human chorianic gonadotropin) has been used in the area of treating ferrets for many years. It has been used mainly when a jill has gone into "heat" and there is no male around or if a jill has been spayed but for some reason there is still ovarian remnants present and symptoms of "heat" sometimes occur. Injections of HCG basically take the female out of heat.
One of the symptoms of adrenal ferrets is a swollen vulva, which can actually get infected.
Normally, when a ferret has been diagnosed with adrenal problems, surgery is performed. Removal of the left adrenal is a rather simple operation, but due to the fact that the right adrenal may be incased in the vena cava, only experienced ferret vets will attempt this surgery, which is sometimes done via cryosurgery or even laser surgery now.
The second most common option for treatment has been Lupron which has been shown to last for many months, but the cost is very high.
Another option recently used is Melatonin which seems to aid in hair growth but not the prevention of the swollen vulva.
In the shelter situation, may people "give up" their ferrets because they do not want to deal with the hairless ferret. Consequently, many times there are numerous adrenal ferrets turned into shelters where funds are limited for treatment. Therefore, an alternate method of treatment has been looked for. Also if the left adrenal has already been removed and symptoms have returned, additional surgery may not be an option due to the age of the ferret.
My vet decided to try and use HCG on 3 of the adrenal ferrets in my friend's shelter. HCG is an intramuscular injection. The procedure has been 1 cc on the initial visit, then 1/2 cc on subsequent visits every week. Depending upon the results, injections are then given every other week and continuosly enlarging the space between injections.
The results of these 3 ferrets follow:
Ferret #1: 6 year old female, previously had left adrenal removed. The only hair remaining on this ferret was her face and lower legs. Her vulva was swollen to the size of a nickel and looked like it was ready to explode. Her energy level was good since she played with the other ferrets. After 2 months of injections, she has hair on her entire body, her vulva has returned to normal size and she is now on shots every other week. By looking at her, you would never know that she is an adrenal ferret.
Ferret #2: 6 year old male, also had left adrenal removed. He was totally hairless except for his face and a little hair on his neck. After 2 months of HCG his hair has begun to return on his body and his feet (talk about weird looking). He continues on HCG once a week and will be monitored as to when the injections can be spaced out.
Ferret#3: 4 year old female, no adrenal surgery, totally hairless, lethargic plus has a few skin tumors on her legs. Poor health and for this reason the vet did not feel that she would survive the anesthesia for surgery, nor did she have the strength for recuperation afterwards. Unfortunately after 2 months of HCG injections there has been no improvement at all. It was suggested that this therapy be discontinued because apparently her immune system is affected in other ways. Because of the fact that she seems to be in pain, I believe that she will be helped to cross the bridge very soon.
The cost of a 10cc bottle of HCG is $50 in our area. Using 1 cc on the initial visit and then 1/2 cc every week, one bottle will last about 19 weeks or almost 5 months. Considering that Lupron, if you use the 2000mcg/4 month depot shot, which lasts about 5-6 months and costs about $ 200, usage of HCG, if it works, is a much more reasonable way to go.
My Silveretta has just begun this regimen. She had received Lupron in Jan. 2000 when we were still living in Puerto Rico and surgery was no option. Then in Dec. 2000, once we were in Florida and the Lupron had lost its effect, she had her left adrenal removed. You may remember that her recovery was unreal. That same night she was up and eating and playing with her sisters, never showing any signs of having had surgery. 6 months later, she began loosing her hair again and her vulva was swelling. She was given another Lupron injection in Aug. 2001. In Dec. her hair again was getting coarse and beginning to thin. I began to give her Melatonin, which worked wonders with hair rejuvenation, but starting in mid-April I noticed her vulva was beginning to swell. Her hair remains beautiful. Last week, I had to rush her to the vet with a urinary infection, due perhaps to the swollen area and bacteria being allowed to remain close to the urethral opening. The Vet suggested we try the HCG to work on getting the vulva back to normal. She had her first injection on Thursday. Didn't like it one bit, but she was still a good patient. She goes again next Thursday.
Another thing keeping the cost down is our vet does not charge to do the injections. For that we are very lucky. He has also performed autopsies on a few of the shelter ferrets that have died, either suddenly or ones that had fast growing tumors that were inoperable. One such ferret was only 2 years old. A big boy, who had been playing with the other ferrets that morning. When it was time to go back to the cages, all ferrets were accounted for but him. He was found inside one of the big tubes, dead. On autopsy it showed that he had cardiomyopathy and had probably died of a sudden heart attack. He also did an autopsy on my Rocki. We'd known that Rocki had cancer of his one kidney and right adrenal, which showed on his emergency surgery, but in the 8 months more that he lived, the cancer was shown to have spread to his liver, spleen, other kidney and pancreas. By doing these autopsies, our vet is able to increase his ferret knowledge and I guess, in return, he helps us by charging much less when he can. I wish all vets were this caring.
