Hi Laura - you wrote:
 
>I did a tail check on the ferrets, and my 16 month old albino from MF has
>something weird going on with his tail.  There is a ring of thinning fur,
>not quite where the tail joins the body.
 
Two of my ferrets have had the same thing (one a MF BEW female, the other a
sable male).  In both cases it became noticable after a change of fur
(either shedding, or when the winter coat starts to come in).  I think I've
got this one figured out, though.  That area on the dorsal side right where
the tail joins the haunch is one of the hardest place on the ferret's body
to reach (watch the acrobatics they go into to get to it!), and thus it's
the last place that the old fur sticks during a molt.  I broke down and
plucked the loose fur off my big, fat male - it clearly itched, and he
couldn't get to it.
 
The ring may only look thin because the fur around it hasn't fallen out - so
I'd suggest that you see if the fur back there is loose, and if it is either
comb, brush or gently pluck it off.  Hope that helps...
 
On a similar subject, when I first put a collar on my little female sable,
it caused the fur beneath it to thin noticable (we used nylon - the little
ones were rather tough on the leather ones we tried).  When we gave up on
the collar, the ring around her neck persisted for the better part of year.
 
Gwen
[Posted in FML issue 1664]