From:
alicia ferretlady drakiotes
Date: 2005-07-24 14:19:01 UTC
Subject: RE: [ferrethealth] Re: Precious' tail
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <20050724141901.28019.qmail@web30407.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
>I take then Dr Kawasaki does not live in the UK or
our Adrenal Disease
>must spontaneously self rectify. Tail hair loss is
fairly common here
in
>stressed incorrectly fed or housed ferrets. It mostly
shows in the
early
>summer shed and corrects itself at the autumn shed.
Chris.
AH- Chris,
I know what you are talking about as most people who
deal with intact animals will! Hormonal peaks during
rut & estrus WILL CAUSE hairloss on tails- males
especially adn it does rectify when the animal
progresses out of the high hormonal state.
However sometimes ferret hobs do "stay" in rut. I
have had one do this adn we needed to use lupron to
break the cycel- actually he was locked into rut so
long he was losing flank hair the lupron took him out
of his smelly rut stte adn a melatonin implant DID
indeed restore his lush & fluffy coat. Tow months
later he was neutered. He has no sign of adrenal
symptoms now 6 mos following the neuter.
THE MAIN POINT I would like to make is -- that in the
US MOST ferrets are early alter ferrets ( spayed or
neutered before a year of age). The longevity of the
neuter process is demonstrating that ferret can only
miss so many hormone cycles before it displays hyper
adrenal symptoms. Unfortunately hair loss may be one.
On the other hand we have had many ferrets in the
shelter with "rat tail" who merely had oil plugged
pores & blackkheads for dragging tails through clay
litter etc. adn once the tails were cleaned & soaked
the hair did regrow.
I admit it can be frustating taking a blanket
statement... and the statement needs to apply to the
ferrets whom it is addressed.
Intact ferrets will demonstrat hairloss when in rut--
lucky for them - unlike human men with high
testosterone counts their hair grows back after the
"rut" season ends.
This is an area which clearly needs more study....
hopefully answers will come soon!
Alicai D.
tech at www.ferretwise.org
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