From:
phie@home.se
Date: 2003-06-03 08:24:52 UTC
Subject: RE: Skin issues
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <2328680.1054628692251.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Katarine wrote:
>Just a wild thought...possibly an allergy to his food dish? Are >you using plastic food bowls? I've read on other lists, dealing >with other pets, about allergies resulting from plastic food >dishes. They mostly show up on the chin. I was thinking the >paws could be affected also because they sometimes place their >paws on their food bowls while eating.
No, I'm using a bowl out of metal. It's the same kind of bowl that people often buy to dogs and cats.
Thanks for the suggestion, although I don't think that's the problem.
Sukie wrote:
> I've been trying to recall foot things.
> See if these sound at all like what you are seeing:
> http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG6355
> http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG9188
> http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG9210
> There also was a discussion of ferrets who were getting foot problems that turned out to be litter related and when the animals had their litter types changed those stopped. I just can't find the past posts on the topic.
> Has a skin scraping been done?
> Is the ferret otherwise normal? No eye crusting? No >behavioral changes or neurological things? No nose crusting?
Thanks Sukie. It could possibly be that he has a demodex mite, now that you've provided me with great links.
The vet hasn't done a deep skin-scraping on my ferret, but I do think that must be done this time. The vet only used a cotton swab last time, and found nothing.
He's very happy and healthy except for the itching and the weird paw-crust and "black heads" on his face.
I don't think it's the litter, since I'm using something 100% natural without any weird chemicals (wooden pellets). The mite-idea sounds much more reasonable.
I'll pass that information on to my vet. Thanks a lot!