Facts About Lupron for Ferrets with Adrenal Disease
The injectable artificial hormone stabilizes your pet's adrenal glands, pituitary glands and hypothalamus to control the disease. Lupron is not a cure, but rather a long-term treatment to improve your pet's quality of life.
Ferrets with carcinoma tumors (cancer) in the adrenal glands, adenomas or hyperplasia are prone to adrenal disease. These medical conditions disturb the pet's natural hormone production process.
The ferret produces too much gonadotropin releasing hormone, which tells the pituitary gland to work extra hard and it generates too much luteinizing and follicle-stimulating hormone. In turn, the ferret's adrenal glands generate too much estrogen and androgen, according to Doctors Foster and Smith's website. Lupron treatments help regulate these hormones.
Ferrets with adrenal disease have physical symptoms, according to Long Beach Animal Hospital in California. Your pet may exhibit hair loss on it's tail or near the rear legs and thighs. Four to five months into a Lupron regimen, your pet should start to re-grow it's hair. Although the hair may appear thin, it will thicken as the pet's health improves.
Female ferrets may appear swollen around the vulva and males can have a difficult time urinating since urinary cysts commonly plague ferrets with adrenal disease. Both sexes of ferrets may begin to act aggressive.
Healthy ferrets can benefit from Lupron. Your pet doesn't have to be diagnosed with adrenal disease to receive Lupron treatments. Veterinarian Kevin Wright at the Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital gives his ferret patients a preventative dose of Lupron at the start of each year to keep the pet's hormone production in check.
Lupron is usually administered at the Veterinary office. A life-long Lupron regimen requires injections monthly or three to four times per year depending on the development of the ferret's adrenal disease. Three to four weeks after the first treatment, most ferrets begin to show improvement. Their bodies begin to regulate the hormone production cycles and the pet is less lethargic and more playful.
Eighty percent of ferrets on a Lupron regimen benefit from the treatments, according to Doctor's Foster and Smith. In addition to the medication, your veterinarian may suggest surgically removing tumors from the adrenal glands. Weigh this decision carefully if your pet is very ill or old, since surgery is a temporary fix. Tumors can re-grow.
Related Articles:
How to Get Your Pet to Take Medicine or Vitamins
Benefits and Dangers of Kissing Pets
Sources and Suggested Further Reading:
Doctors Foster and Smith: Medication Overview - Lupron
Ferrets Magazine: Do Ferrets With Adrenal Gland Disease Need Lupron For Life?
Long Beach Animal Hospital: Ferret Adrenal Disease
Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital: Lupron Therapy
Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital: Ferrets, Adrenal Disease Complex
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Published by Angela Tague
Angela Tague has worked in news writing and photography since 1998. After attaining a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Iowa, Tague's journalism career has led to positions at two... View profile
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