From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2008-07-30 20:18:17 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Hair loss on tail.
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Fur loss on the end of the tail does not mean that adrenal disease is
inevitable. It means that it is among the possibilities, but says
nothing about risk rate as far as I know, though I have heard what
SEEMS like more vets in the South noting what SEEMS to be a tighter
connection to later adrenal disease for ferrets who have been there a
long time.
We have a ferret who regularly has lost fur due to allergies and when
his allergies get bad he also has developed secondary bacterial skin
infections. Each time he loses fur we have done the TN Panel. This
year when he began asthma we were able to monitor that and combine
what we learned with the dates of past years' problems. He seems to
have allergies when the swamp weed, Plantain, goes above 4 per cubic
meter. There could still be a different or additional triggers but this
one seems to mesh beautifully. As you have probably guessed his
adrenal panels have always been perfect.
In the past we've had others who have lost fur for other reasons than
adrenal and have read of still others. Some causes have been poor
circulation related to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a severe tail
injury that caused poor circulation, extreme changes in humidity,
fungal infection, the start of a chordoma, marked increases in
light exposure, mechanical scraping, mites, fleas, and extreme
nervous grooming. I'm sure there are other possible causes.
This ferret needs a vet visit. If the cause is not readily apparent to
the vet then doing the TN Panel is a testing option which can be useful,
no matter what the results are.
If you do not yet have a ferret vet this resource is among the ones
which could useful:
http://ferrethealth.org/vets/
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