Uses of Suprelorin/DES
We often refer to the use of an “implant”. The implant in question is sold under the name brand of Suprelorin and the component that make it work is deslorelin acetate (DES). It has several uses and oftentimes owners and even vets may get them confused:
(1) for treatment of Adrenal disease: the implant must be renewed every 6 months for it to work properly and stop the symptoms and slow the progression of the disease
(2) as a prevention for adrenal disease: The ferret must be implanted within the first year of the surgical castration. It must be renewed every year. This is not an option it has nothing to do with when it wears off, this has to do with making sure the hormones stop and do not recur.
(3) as a form of chemical castration: This may be used on both hobs and jills but was only tested on hobs. This may be introduced at any time to end a ferret in season. It is generally thought to be best introduced after the ferrets 9th month to allow full physical or as close to full physical growth as possible. This may be renewed as the ferret starts to show signs of coming back into rut or estrus.
Ordering Deslorelin/Suprelorin in Canada
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR CANADIAN FERRET OWNERS!!
As many of you know our vets in Canada have been unable to order the DES / Supralorin implant from Virbac in the U.S. After some digging we determined that this is because Virbac now only sells through pharmaceutical distributors in the U.S. and no longer sells it directly from their website. This is a problem for those of us in Canada because of the difference in drug prices between Canada and the U.S. and the resulting laws pertaining to U.S. vs Canadian pharmaceutical distributors. At this time Virbac doesn’t seem to be interested in working with Health Canada or Canadian distributors (I could be wrong about that but that was the impression I got over the last few weeks of dealing with Virbac U.S.).
Due to some fantastic work by Lisa Miodragovic those of us in Canada now have a source for our vets to order DES again. They still need the standard Emergency Release form that is needed when ordering from the U.S. but now they will be ordering from a pharmaceutical exporter out of Australia (where DES is manufactured) that has an export / import license with Canada (the company is called Provet). Unfortunately, since the implants will be coming from Australia, we may see a price increase passed onto us by our Vets since the shipping may be more coming from Australia (thankfully the Australia dollar is more in line with the Canadian dollar vs. U.S. so the actual price may be lower).