Bald tails can indicate adrenal disease but more commonly they just
indicate dermal problems.  Look up "rat tail" in the FML Archives (URL
in the header of every day's FML).
 
Oh, about costs mentioned in my other post today: The highest we ever had
any year for yet costs (with 7 in the household) was $11,500 in one year,
but we prepare for worse just to be safest.  Thinking about it I strongly
suspect that part of my post on numbers of ferrets was unclear.  For a
while we just put those amounts aside for any ferret of 5 years of age or
above, but we changed our budgeting to be safest for them.  Although we
do not spend as much as we budget the budgeting helps us have a cut-off
number so that we can be most fair to ferrets in our family.  Is it easy
or comfy?  Not really, but a lot of practises that help more in the long
run aren't: saving for rainy days, flossing teeth, getting tetanus
boosters, practising a useful skill, reading up carefully on candidates
before voting, etc.  so at times what is harder in the short term makes
things so, so, so much better over the long haul.
[Posted in FML issue 4184]