I have a six year old albino sprite. A few years ago she began
losing her hair and her vulva began to swell. I took her to a vet
for adrenal surgery. He could not locate the adrenal gland because
it was embedded in a fat pad. After searching for some time he sewed
her back up. In the process he apparently damaged a kidney which was
leaking urine inside her body. He performed emergency surgery that
night and removed the damaged kidney. She ended up with peritonitis
and pancreatitis. She spent a week in the hospital but pulled
through. The vet said he removed everything in the area and thought
he had gotten the adrenal too. She continued to lose hair and the
vulva swelling never went down. I've been feeding my ferrets Science
Diet and after this switched to ProPlan because someone told me it
would be easier for her to digest. In November I switched to the new
Totally Ferret ferret food. In the last few weeks, my ferret,
Starrs, suddenly wanted to play all the time. She had been sleeping
an awful lot. In fact, I wondered if she would make it through the
winter. She also started to regain muscle mass. A few days ago when
I picked her up I noticed her skin felt different. She was growing
in new hair! And the swelling in her vulva had gone down to almost
normal size. Granted it doesn't fell like a really great coat but it
is hair. Could the new food be causing this turn around? Two of my
other ferrets who had the mystery virus last summer had really
sparse coats and lost a lot of muscle mass and they've gotten in
mice new coats and have put on weight and have perked up
considerably. Drs. Williams or Brown do you think nutrition can have
such an effect. It may be coincidence but I'm going to stick with
the new food anyway. I'm interested in anyone's opinion on this.
 
Cindy Sooy
 
[Posted in FML issue 0803]