From:
"Marie Bartholdsson"
Date: 2003-09-17 11:41:13 UTC
Subject: An observation re "rat tail".
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <Law10-F96X6QNCOENB9000022b7@hotmail.com>
During a period of 15 years and about 40 ferrets that have lived or stayed
here for longer times, I have noticed that it's only the altered
(neutered/spayed) animals that will loose hair on the tail and develop what
is known as rat tail.
I'm a breeder and the ferrets are usually not altered until they are old
unless there's a medical reason to do so. The jills that are not bred are
taken out of heat either by V-hob or hormone injection, and both jills and
hobs live outdoors under natural photoperiods and follow the natural
seasons.
None of the ferrets, regardless of age and sex, have ever developed rat tail
for as long as they stay unaltered. But after they've been fixed, the
problem will occur. If, or how much hair they loose, varies from year to
year. Older (altered) ferrets have a higher incidence than the young
(altered) ones. It only occurs late in the summer, and the hair always grow
out again with the winter coat.
As an example, I spayed and neutered a group of ferrets early in their
seventh year. They had never had rat tail before, but later the same season
they were fixed they all had bare tails for the first time and the same
happened again this year. Another of my jills is 7 years and not spayed, and
she does not get rat tail unlike the others her age that are altered.
The same goes for younger ferrets that I have altered at age 2-4 years. One
jill had to be spayed due to pyometra at age 2. She has since had rat tail
every summer while none of her 5 siblings have not until they too was
altered at age 6, and then started to get rat tail.
Marie
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