Zinc and his cagemate Zest have been consistently passed over for adoption and in 2001 Zinc began showing symptoms of adrenal disease. In January of 2002 he had surgery to remove his left adrenal gland. He also had biopsies taken of his digestive tract, had his teeth cleaned and a few incisors removed. Zinc had a hard time recovering from surgery with vomiting, bloody diarrhea, and anexoria. After a regime of antibiotics, carafate, zantac, and a medication to prevent vomiting, he finally recovered to his normal feisty self. The biopsies of his digestive tract revealed severe inflammatory bowel disease so he was placed on Imuran once a day and has been on it ever since. Recently Zinc started having a noticeably bulging eye. Then that side of his face started to swell. A vet exam discovered a pocket of fluid on that side of his face that the vet drained. They felt he had a ruptured saliva duct and the saliva was pooling in his face. He has been drained several times now, but currently the swelling has discontinued, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that he will not need further treatment for that problem.