As mentioned in another post, I spent last weekend at Dayna's place, helping
with her computer.  On Saturday, she got a call from a gent whose daughter
had gone to college over a year ago, leaving two female ferts.  They had
started getting sick, dad didn't want to spend cash on vets, so a local pet
store gave him Dayna's number as a shelter.  Dayna had to convince him to
give up their "large cage" so that they wouldn't be traumatized by changing
homes as well as owners, going through medical procedures, and all the other
upcoming trauma soon to enter their lives...he got his wife to grudgingly
agree.
 
Sunday, Dayna went to make the pickup with me along as an observer.
 
The girls were about 4, Marshalls, both facing adrenal problems.  The more
advanced case had 80% (at least) hair loss and a vagina "popping out"
between 1/4 and 3/8th of an inch - and badly underweight.  Her sister was a
milder case, with total hair loss only on the tail (except a wispy tuft at
the end) starting to spread up toward the hips, and the first hints of hair
loss across the shoulderblades.  We checked for other possible causes of
hair loss, especially blackheads/mites on the tail of the milder case which
might indicate something other than adrenal and found nothing.
 
Both girls will be seen by a vet within the week; Dayna's vet who's
inexperienced and eager to learn ferts will get the opportunity to compare
an advanced case with one earlier in the cycle, pending complete
diagnosises, hence this will be a bonanza for him.
 
As we drove away, Dayna explained that this was powerfull evidence for the
"environmental causes" theory of adrenal disease as supported by Dayna and
Mo'Bob, among others - bad Marshall genes may have explained both sisters
getting sick, but both at exactly the same time?  The odds against are
astronomical...consider for a moment all the possible environmental causes:
 
TEMPERATURE: They have been in an unheated/unairconditioned garage for 1.5
years - in the desert north of LA.  Plus, their blankets were inadequate
thin cotton and pinned down so they couldn't "pile them up" into something
adequate during the recent cold spells.
 
BOREDOM: No toys, the "large cage" would indeed have been large - for
rats...and very little human contact, at least while "Pops" had them.
 
LIGHTING: "Pops" is a real motorhead, spending major time in the garage
working on hotrods - lighting is a constant 6:00am to midnight bright
flourescent setup year-round.
 
CHEMICALS: See comment on hotrodding - he did welding, light machining,
painting, god only knows what else.  Probably not *extreme*, and Pops ran a
very clean shop area (clean cage, too) but chemicals should be considered?
 
POOR DIET: Their fur was like brillo pads; once "Pops" figured out they were
sick, he obtained some 8n1 "real" ferret food (which isn't that good
anyways); before that they were on "something from the grocery store"...
 
And I doubt this is a complete list of all that was wrong in their little
lives.  Nasty, huh?  I'm presenting this as general evidence, not to make
the case that Marshall genetics are perfect - I'm not expert enough to make
heads or tails of it all.  Dayna and I photographed the girls the night we
brought them to her place - and I'm absolutely certain they're in good hands
now.
[Posted in FML issue 1783]