From:
linsto@hotmail.com
Date: 2003-07-23 05:37:30 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Adrenal Disease/Part 3
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <9319143.1058971117050.JavaMail.nobody@magnesium.smartgroups.com>
Now, I'm all "mixed up"..........
Cookie is a sable male ferret of 2 years old....
He has a lot of energy, and he's my best friend...
I'm gonna repeat the symptoms to you :
Hair loss : little spot on the head, symetric on the abdomen (about 1/2" both sides of the "zipper"), spots upper anterior paws, less hair on feet, TAIL and HIND are OK (NO Hair loss)
*(vet: many ferrets do have less hair on feet, wait to see evolution of hair loss, must be a big spot with no hair at all)*
Marking : leave little spots of urine
(vet: can be normal behavior)
Weight : not a big ferret (2 pounds) seems a bit smaller
(vet: seems OK, not big, it's summer, not a too
small ferret, weight now?)
Scratching : anterior shoulders area (often)
Urine : no problem to , seems urinate more (drink more=summer?)
If you can tell me what you think .......
The vet seems to be a good one but ?
Thanks again to everyone for caring, for the infos and for your time
Linda & Cookie
Author wrote:
> Yes, especially on the tail. Adric has had on and off skin problems
> that have caused him to lose hair on his tail and a little bit above the
> tail around coat change time the last three years. We can always tell
> because he gets little blackheads on his tail. The first time that
> wasn't obvious at first, and it was spring coat change so he lost a
> bunch of weight, and we thought we were dealing with adrenal. We
> weren't.
> Some ferrets go through a coat change gradually while others "blow"
> their coats. It can look like pretty serious hair loss, except all the
> hair grows back pretty quickly. It isn't anything to worry about.
> I've heard stress can cause hair loss. Bad diet can result in a
> brittle, coarse coat or a poor quality coat.
> For me to think adrenal it has to be either serious hair loss, hair loss
> combined with another common adrenal symptom, or slow, steady hair loss
> that is ongoing and not just at coat change time. Having said that,
> Keith and I seem to be very good at picking up on adrenal very early.
> Usually something else like weight loss or aggressiveness plus the
> beginning of hair loss tips us off.
> All the best,
> Caity and the notorious nine