I'm sorry to go over this again and in such a long post.  All of this has
been discussed lately, but I'm still confused.
 
Just over a year ago, Gunther had his spleen removed.  The vet said he
looked at the adrenals while he was in there and that they looked fine.
A few months after the surgery Gunther started losing hair up the tail
and over the butt to his lower back (his shaved stomach, and neck
remained bare).  Also he wasn't eating well.  We took him back to the
vet.  They said his abdomen was fine and that it was probably just the
shock of the operation.
 
Over the past year his hair did start to grow back.  He now has hair on
the tip and top of his tail, a bare patch in between.  The patch on his
neck grew in, but his stomach hair is still sparse.  He doesn't have much
in the way of undercoat at all.  Lately we've noticed that he's losing
more hair over the shoulders and on the top of his head.  The tops of his
rear feet do seem to be more bare than his front feet.
 
Also over the past year his weight never stablized.  Sometimes he gains
some, then he seems to loose it again.  You can see his butt and shoulder
bones pretty clearly.  He is eating and seems to do better when I give him
chicken baby food.
 
He also seems to go thru waves of lethargy.  Some days he doesn't even want
to wake up to get out of the cage in the mornings and evenings.  Other days
he's scaling the baby gate and sneaking his into the basement where dances
for joy and gets spider webs all over his whiskers (I try not to leave him
alone with access to the baby gate anymore).
 
To further complicate matters, we moved from the apartment to a house
last April.  Since then his personality has changed a bit.  He is more
aggressive with Ozzie (but never Nico) when they are in the cage.  He
chews on her ears until she squeals.  He spends much more time licking
the butts of both our little girl ferrets.  He now likes to rub his belly
on rounded objects and at least once it looked like he was trying to
mount Ozzie (yes, he's fixed).  Also he used to love carrying around foil
balls more than anything, now he has no interest.  He used to be 100%
with the litter box, now he's 0%.
 
His belly does NOT seem to be the slightest bit distended.
 
He's been to 2 vets in the past month, and had one blood test (both new
vets since we just moved).  The test came up pretty much normal.
Neither vet seemed to think there was anything wrong.
 
Could the stress of the move cause the hair growth and weight gain to
stop, and the change in behavior?  It was a hot summer and we don't
have air conditioning, he certainly didn't have any incentive to grow
hair.  Should I wait until it gets cold and see if that stimulates
hair, weight, and energy?
 
Should the adrenals have looked questionable during the splenectomy if
there was a problem?
 
I saw in the medical faq that there is a blood test now, should we try
that?  He has come to DESPISE vets and exams.  I don't want him to be
sick, but I don't want to put him thru unnecessary fear and pain, either.
 
Thanks in advance, from a worried Mom, who's starting to feel like a
paranoid, vet-bothering Mom.
 
Norris
[Posted in FML issue 1337]