From:
"Ravenfeathers"
Date: 2007-12-27 19:04:40 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] hair loss in young ferret
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
My intact hob has had increasing hair loss since about mid November.
He is 6 months old and on a 2 mouse a day diet with Evo ferret and
gravy. My vet has done a skin scrape and acetate tape test which
have come back negative. He also is not fluorescing under a black
light.
His hair loss started at the base of his tail and we treated it with
Stridex pads (for about 2 weeks) in case it was a case of ferret
acne. We have since ceased that since Dec 8th, it was cleaning the
redness off his tail but the hair loss was slowly progressing.
His hair is growing back slowly but at the same time the hair loss
has progressed further down his tail. It is also accompanied by a
redish discharge that almost resembles a rash, but it cleans off like
a funky oil discharge and appears yellow on a damp paper towel.
The redness I noticed last night now extends up his spine very
faintly (that weirds me out) to where he still has a normal amount of
fur. I have stepped up his tone intake over the last 3 weeks and do
not want to bathe his hiney b/c his skin is quite dry. I've seen him
biting/itching his tail but only in the cage, out of the cage he is a
normal happy go lucky adolescent.
He had undergone treatment in October for Coccidia and has since
tested negative. He has also had 3 treatments of Revolution for ear
mites since September, which he still has some trace signs of and I
continue to put the mineral oil in his ears (as well as my other
kids).
None of my other ferrets are showing any of the same skin issues. I
havnt changed the kibble and the only other thing that has changed
was the supplier for my mice. But I cant exactly remember when I
changed that, possibly in October (hair loss started in November). I
have since received a new mouse shipment and am no longer using our
local supplier.
We thought maybe it was a allergy to my detergent or the fabric
softener, but that doesnt explain why the hair loss is only on the
tail.
My breeder has suggested I ask the list in hopes that somebody has
insight. I am going to ask my vet for a skin/hair culture but before
I do so I'd like some feedback in case I should ask for anything else
so I dont waste the trip. At our last trip when the skin scrape was
negative he said it was just a weird seasonal coat change (on Dec
13th).
Any insight, suggestions, feedback is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Erin
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