My oldest ferret (approaching 4 and a half) was recently diagnosed with adrenal disease.  I'm a bit of a dilemma as to the best way to proceed with treatment, since I am located in Japan and options are limited here. 

My vet has said that basically all adrenal ferrets in Japan are treated with monthly lupron injections and that surgery is rarely performed, but he would be comfortable doing the surgery if I wanted to.  I was under the impression that the norm was the opposite, with surgery being the most common option and medical treatment used only in cases where surgery would be too risky.  My girlie is otherwise healthy and I have been anticipating the surgery for years now (she's always had a tail on the thinner side and before we moved overseas my vet back in the United States said that she's a likely candidate for adrenal in the future) but now I am feeling confused and don't want to demand something as drastic as surgery when it is against my vet's judgement.  

Could anyone point me in the direction of advice about adrenal surgery vs. medical treatment?  

We treat our adrenals with monthly lupron and I crush 3mg melatonin and put it in the noon soupy. We have never opted for surgery. Usually they eventually end up on meds anyway. Personally I feel the surgery is to invasive. Also depending which gland it is, its harder to remove one of them.

 
Fuzzbutts Rule!

Mine has an implant - I'm assuming that's not an option for you since you didn't mention it, but if it is, I recommend it. That way you don't have to take them in monthly and it's a more constant dose.

Surgery on te rigt adrenal gland is especially because of its proximity to the vena cava, one of te largest blood vessels in the body.  Surgery one one gland does not prevent it from afecting the other.  You should be abel to get a 3 month lupron depot that may last up to 5 months.  

I don't have the link for the mfr of Suprelorin, but it comes from Australia and I don't know its status in Japan.  Maybe you can find it from this article.

http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=aa5776dc-277e-4a5e-885f-6e3f05c8404b&CFID=374534&CFTOKEN=f22094447c9bc5c1-8ACA906B-0352-4197-53C2A74858480F2C

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