From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2005-09-23 19:40:29 UTC
Subject: RE: Food allergy
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <5757691.1127504429426.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Okay, yes, ferrets can have toruble with certain foods, though it may be more of a food intolerance than an allergy, but the way it presents tends to be intestinal woes such as IBD. We have had one who could tolerate no poultry at all.
Your question comes shortly after my discussing this topic a few days ago with someone in the pet food industry who is quite knowledgeable though he himself does not have a doctorate in veterinary nutrition.
There are two possible mechanisms he considered worth consideration though both are guesswork. One is that if a ferret is given a lot of supplementation along with a food that is very nutritionally complete the animo acid balance may get out of whack due to the supplementation, nad he thinks that this could account for general not really thriving symptoms and maybe fur loss. (He does not think the problem is likely to be A or D toxicity. Vitamin A toxicity has never been actually documented in ferrets -- not to say that it hasn't happened under extreme situations but there is no proof that it actually has occurred even though some have looked for it. That isn't a huge surprise given that liver would hsve ancestrally been in the diet a decent bit. He also said that he thinks that even though ferrets are of crepuscular (dawn and dusk) activity ancestral background that D would be hard to overdo.)
he also postulated that ferret who have early adrenal problems may at times have those hidden by some foods that are high in -- oh, shoot, now I can't recall which amino acid he mentioned (Was it tryptophan perhaps?) -- anyway, one of the amino acids can be (is?) a component in the body's own production of melatonin so he wondered if foods with higher levels of that amino acid might facilitate the body crfeating more melatonin on its own which could account for fur regrowth (and could slow and sometimes even stall neoplasia growth).
Also, remember that the fur loss could have been related to something other than food. If the ferret was getting increasing light exposure (That includes artificial light use.) during these time that is a well documented cause of seasonal and induced mock-seasonal fur loss.
it *MIGHT* (i.e. guesswork) even be that there was some adrenal hyperplasia that self-corrected instead or advancing to neoplasia.
So, yes, ferrets CAN have food intolerances or perhaps food allergies. Would that be among the most likley things to account for reversed fur loss? I doubt it, but it can't be completely discounted as a possibility.
Hope I said that well enough.