I have been reading a bit about melatonin implants as therputic, as well as preventative measures against development of Adrenal Gland Disease. What are they, and how to they treat/prevent AGD? What are the best measures to you utilize lighting throughout the day to prevent AGD...does anyone know a bit about this topic...I'd like to learn more!

-sara

Oops!!! I forgot to put my name in the "your name" box on the first post!! sorry!!!

I added your name for ya.

I'm not all that familiar with melantonin implants, except to know that it is one of 3 main ways to treat adrenal disease. (The other two being lupron/hormone shots and surgery). Since the protocol from the shelter is usually Lupron, that's what I have my 3 adrenal girls on. It is a wonderful regimen...I've had 2 of them on it for over 2 years....they're doing great. One came back from being almost totally bald to having a pretty coat of hair and being the alpha in my pack.

Cathy Johnson-Delaney (shelter vet) has done a study on some of these..... but I can't speak real intelligently about them....

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"Dogs are followers, cats are self-absorbed, ferrets just are."

Yeah, they kept comming up in a forum I was looking at...and I was curious to know what they deal was about them...

Well, I know they work on the photocycle of the ferret (there is a hypothesis that incorrect lengths of natural daylight contribute to adrenal disease). Melatonin works to change what the body is perceiving as it's natural photoperiod and sleep cycle. (Think about human melatonin and why people take it to prevent jetlag when they travel).

Having said all of that, I'm really not familiar with how successful it is in treating ferrets with adrenal or in preventing adrenal, but I'd assume of those two, the prevention would be more successful.


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"Dogs are followers, cats are self-absorbed, ferrets just are."

We did a very small study at our shelter using 2 intact boys w/ the implant, 1 intact male as a control, and one altered girl where we used the implant instead of her monthly lupron shot. All had hormone panels taken monthly for four months. Conclusion: it didn't effectively control the sex steriods in any of them. The 3 boys were just as rutty as when we began the study (where Lupron will effectively take them out of rut), and the small female (~500g) was extremely sleepy the whole time. They did have nice coats though - the fur trade uses melatonin to make for some very fluffy minks.

So while it does cosmetically grow hair, it's not really doing what it needs to internally.

Megan