adrenal rat tail questions

[taratee]

so tia who is really small (but getting bigger) has pretty serious hair loss on her tail, i see some small hair on it but nothing too long heres a pic


now my questions is this: when she was out last night i felt her tail and it was FREEZING what does this mean?

i feel like she was simply cold and if thats the case i was wondering if there were tail warmers lol i just hate feeling like shes uncomfortable especially when shes starting to show signs of enjoying life again

[miamiferret2]

That is normal for a hairless tail to feel cold. It doesn't bother them at all. Are you giving her lupron deslorelin or melatonin?

[taratee]

my vet doesnt want to give it to a ferret her size he said maybe if she gained some weight he would, he wotn do a surgery for the same reason. he also is demanding a 600 blood test and a 500 ultrasound before he does anything

[mjohn143]

I may looks into other opinions from different vets, bc that is ridiculous.

[mustelidmusk]

Tails and feet always seem to freeze when the cold sets in for the winter - even in the house. I don't know of any way to prevent this other than....
1, carry your fert in a well insulated bonding pouch/sleep sack when you're outside in the cold.
2. if you allow your fert to walk, let your fert walk for short period of time. The place your ferret inside your coat (preferably under your sweat shirt) (You can wear a T-shirt under your sweat shirt - helps with the cold paws Then put her in the bonding pouch.

Her tail looks more adrenal than rat-tail. The reason I say this is because the tip of the tail still has fur,and there does not seem to be much evidence of blackheads. The fur loss seems heavy at the base of the tail....perhaps there is some fur loss working its way up her back as well. This in not the time of year that rat-tail is prevalent.

-jennifer

[Heather]

I find that my brats with rat tail usually loose it from the tip then it works it's way down, my adrenal brats seem to thin across the hips (from the photo, that appears to be the issue) and the hair thins at the base of the tail. I don't have any adrenal kids with naked tails Mine seem to loose it across their hips and bellies. Even poor Pooka who is in the last stages of adrenal has a gorgeous tail....she rather looks like those persian cats who get the awesome lion clip Now, I have a question (there are so many furkids on here and I sometimes have difficulty keeping their pasts and conditions straight, so please forgive me for asking this). Is this little girl been suffering malnutrition or been ill? You mention that she's really tiny (I have one that weighs less than a pound winter weight, so I understand) is this because she is tiny or just in poor condition? By the way, size shouldn't make any difference to wether she's a candidate for lupron or not. Pooka is getting lupron and she weighs less than a pound right now. If so her loss of fur may be in direct correlation to condition and diet. I've taken in furkids in poor condition (disgusting condition) and the first thing they do is loose their fur on their tails . Poor Houdini and Shazam lost all their fur...naked but they weren't adrenal. Once their coats came in with their next shed they were gorgeous and they never looked back 2 yrs later they still were looking good (flea allergies ).
What temp is it when you take her outside? I always keep a close eye on my brats when they're on leash and outside (they can't choose if they want to be outside or not) I will pick them up and tuck them in my parka so that their little feet and tails don't get too cold. Napoleon just makes a b-line for the front door. He wants in, he's cold (he's a bit of a candy-a** anyway ) The others because they're rescues and aren't as comfortable as my brat, I watch closer.
ciao

[taratee]

i dont take her outside when its this cold because she is so little even if she had a full coat of fur i wouldnt the boys can barely handle it and theyre lard-os, when we got her she was smaller then she is now she is probably a foot all together from tip of the nose to her tail the vet told us that she was very small (about the size of a 4 month old ferret to quote him) but didnt show signs of malnutrition, i dont think she much cared for kibble i dont think its her teeth ( i check them once every two weeks for tartar build up and such) maybe its just her being stubborn? shes very aggressive with our other ferrets so i just assumed she was adrenal and our vet said with her hair loss and agressive nature she was more then likely adrenal her tail isnt fully naked its still fuzzy and has some long hairs holding on, our ferrets dont have fleas as far as i know. im pretty compulsive about checking them their sheets are always washed on high hot heat with flea solution i know that doesnt mean anything but if they had fleas both steven and i would be dying we are both hyper sensitive to them, we dont have any outside pets either

i heard from gwen (shiloismygirl) about a vet in a city near me that i might take her to, the vets prices dont sound as outrageous and a 30 minute drive is nothing really to see someone who specializes in ferrets

[Heather]

She does sound adrenal. No, I wasn't meaning that they had fleas. I wasn't sure is she had been yours from the beginning or if she was one of the hard core rescues No offence intended.
I had a little boy, Mischief....he was really tiny a bit over a pound.

In this photo he's sleeping with his best friend in the whole world...he chose this kit....Mischief is the one with the red collar...Napoleon is 4 months old in this photo and wearing the red collar. This gives you an idea as to how small Mischief was. He was such a sweet little boy...my emo baby He was always depressed until we got him Napoleon. Marshals just makes really tiny ferrets at times, Little Natasha the little girl I mentioned is a marshals. Is your little girl a marshals?
ciao

[taratee]

i didnt take offense heather never fear i was just covering what i know and how i know it so i could get the best opinions lol i am taking weights of everyone today

[mustelidmusk]

some girls are just tiny.....weight is what matters. I have seen tiny raw-feds as well. The reason why got Kachina is because we fell in absolute love with one of Gary Holowiki's (Timmie's Tonic guy) PV Farms albino sprite! She was a tiny little thing, but she was a real spitfire,and nicely filled out as well!!! She was so adorable

-jennifer

[sherrylynne]

If your present vet refuses treatment based on her size, you really need to find a new vet. Here's Sinnead just prior to being treated with lupron:

Here is following:

As you can see, her fur is still a bit on the thin side, but much, much better. This one will give you an idea as to her size

She was around 800 grams when she started on the lupron. Now, she's just under 1100 grams!

[miamiferret2]

OMG I have spoken to gary holowicki on the phone several times! Nice guy but I don't like to use the timmys tonic bc too much sugar. I first found Gary in the early 90's. My ferret had cardiomyopathy adrenal and insulinoma (although back then I did not know what insulinoma was and I didn't have a good vet) and Gary he was giving me tips. I found his page on the internet and I called him. He's the one that told me about the colloidal silver.
Anyway, size of the ferret does not matter with lupron!! Should not matter for melatonin or deslorelin either. The vet can give a lower dose of lupron if he is concerned over her weight.