What have I done......

[bigsis7]

I haven't picked a name yet.

[bigsis7]

Alright so his owner told me that Chewie had hair last month. She said sometimes he loses his hair and sometimes he has all of his hair. She said it rubs of on his hammock. I don't think he could rub the end of his tail, his whole over coat on his back, his rump, and stomach hair off on a soft hammock. What's going on??

[Jaycee]

She is just afraid you'll return the poor guy to her. How is he doing today?

Names:

Rebel
Warrior
Spencer
Reese
Koda
Colby

[bigsis7]

I like those names!! I think we are going to go with Shiloh. He's doing very good today. No other signs of any other illness. Yay!!

[Heather]

Have you had Chewie examined by a vet yet?? The coughing could be something simple like ingested hair, it's also a sign of heart disease. I would be trying to get that ruled out. There's nothing that can be changed if it is but there are meds that can make your furbaby live much longer if it's caught in it's early stages. Mayhem lived almost 2 yrs with cardiomyopathy. Without those meds he would have died much sooner. I really wish that I had understood at the time that a stroke can be the early signs of cardiomyopathy, my vet and I would have had him on the drugs much sooner. Seemingly, ferrets throw thrombosis as an early stage to this type of heart disease.
ciao

[Forum Administrator]

Jul 3, 2008 14:08:22 GMT -5 bigsis7 said:

Alright so his owner told me that Chewie had hair last month. She said sometimes he loses his hair and sometimes he has all of his hair. She said it rubs of on his hammock. I don't think he could rub the end of his tail, his whole over coat on his back, his rump, and stomach hair off on a soft hammock. What's going on??

She COULD be telling the truth. De is adrenal and her hair will grow back (even without lupron or melatonin) depending on the season. The change in seasons affects her hormone levels, which in turn affects the adrenal symptoms. But JUST because the hair grows back doesnt mean that they are "cured" of adreanal or that they dont need surgery/treatment. They still need some kind of treatment be it surgery or lupron.

I agree with Jaycee that she probably doesnt want you to give him back BUT I thought I should point out that it is possible that she's being honest.

[bigsis7]

I just noticed Chewie doesn't have blue tatoos in his ear! So is there another major breeder he could have come from? They got him from the same pet store as Oliver last Christmas

[Forum Administrator]

There is Path Valley That's probably where he is from if he is neutered, descented, and came from a petstore:

www.pathvalleyfarm.com/

[aleronferrets]

Jul 3, 2008 20:15:21 GMT -5 bigsis7 said:

I just noticed Chewie doesn't have blue tatoos in his ear! So is there another major breeder he could have come from? They got him from the same pet store as Oliver last Christmas

There are several other large breeder that sell to pet stores - Path Valley Farm and Triple F Farm would be most likely. There is also Ruby's Fur Farm (no longer a "fur farm" really, they breed exotics as pets now). None of the other breeders tattoo and really all are about the same as Marshall's. All S/N very young, descent, force wean, breed year round and all the bad stuff.

The hairloss thing - you should ask when he first lost his hair not how long it has been gone this time. Adrenal ferrets go through hair loss and growth phases. What it often is really, is an extended shed season. The ferret starts to shed as usual but sheds an excessive amount of hair that leads to balding. Often when they are due to grow a new coat at the next season change, they will grow hair back and appear to be "normal" again until the next shed. Some adrenal ferrets will not ever grow coat back and left untreated, I'd think most eventually stop growing it back. Once it starts coming out though, they get bald pretty quickly, so it is possible he didn't have the current bald spots last month and does now.

Obviously there is no possibility he is rubbing his hair off on the hammck. If a ferret has as much hairloss as Chewie, it is a pretty sure thing that the ferret is adrenal. What is going on is that Chewie's owner was not well educated on ferrets and didn't suspect adrenal disease when he started having hairloss. So she came up with what she thought was a logical reason her ferret was developing bald spots.

[bigsis7]

I asked when he first started losing his hair and how long it has been gone, but she just dodged my questions and said that he had a full coat last month and it comes and goes. She also dodged my question when the last time was that he saw a vet. She said she can't get his vet records back from her vet because he moved to Florida. :-P. Don't think she'll be much help.

[bigsis7]

I'll post this on another thread.