From:
mariebartholdsson@hotmail.com
Date: 2001-09-06 07:47:00 UTC
Subject: possible adrenal
I have recently heard of a ferret that might have adrenal. It's a
five year old intact female. She's had one litter when she was one
year old. She has since been taken out of heat by a vasectomized hob
once, sometimes twice a year. She has lived all her life outdoors
under natural photoperiods, and been fed only a natural diet mainly
consisting of whole carcasses. She was vaccinated with Fervac-D as a
kit, but has not been revaccinated since 1998 (when she was two years
old).
Early this spring she came into heat at the same time as the other
females. But after only a week she suddenly dropped out of heat
spontaneously. Nothing else happened for several weeks, then she
started to loose her hair. It was a general thinning of the hair all
over the body, mostly on the back at first. Now she is almost
completely bald. She appears healthy otherwise. She didn't go through
a pseudopregnancy, but none the less, she has been acting as if she
has kits, treating the other jills as kits, dragging them into the
nest box etc.
Can this be adrenal disease? If it is, this jill doesn't fit the
profile at all. How does adrenal present itself in intact ferrets? If
a jill for some reason doesn't come into heat one season, the
condition of the fur will become increasingly worse until they grow
the new winter fur. But I have never heard of a jill going almost
completely bald.
The owner of this jill, has decided to wait and see what happens.
If anyone is interested, I can arrange to take a picture of the jill.
Marie
http://trickytrixie.tripod.com