Azrael (MF 4.5 y) has some strange things going on with his skin in the past
year.  He has been seen by a vet a couple times, but we're still a little
baffled.
 
History:
April 1996 during a trip to my grandparents'.  Rapid loss of hair on the
left side of mouth.  No apparent scratch marks or abrasions.  Bare spot
stretched along mouth line.  Made him look like the Joker with a painted on
smile of sorts.  No change in shape or extent of hair loss until Fall 1996.
Also, inside toe of right rear foot in certain light appeared a little more
red than other toes.  Vet exam turned up no apparent cause for either
problem.  Told to keep an eye on both.
 
Winter 1997.  Additional hair loss on face; starting to cross under nose and
to other side of mouth just slightly.  Rear toe with significant hair loss,
red, irritated looking skin.  No apparent pain.  Vet visit to test for
mites.  Nothing seen under microscope from mouth and toe tissue samples.
Suggested that hair loss on face could be an allergy to plastic food dishes.
All dishes changed to ceramic.
 
March 1997.  Slight improvement seen in bare patch along mouth.  Very slowly
some hair appears to be growing back in along the edges of the patch.
Unfortunately, some new hair loss is seen along the rim of the eye above the
bare patch.  No improvement on toe, but no worsening either.  Signigicant
new hair loss in silky black hair on legs; underside mostly.  Seasonal
shedding?  This is on all four legs.  No skin irritation seen.
 
Panic attack.  This morning I woke up and there were 5 spots of dried blood
on the sheet going from where Azrael sleeps at my feet to beside the pillow.
I looked him over thouroughly and could find no dried blood or apparent
source of bleeding on him.  He was acting completely normal; a little tired
perhaps but we took a long walk yesterday in a wooded, rocky area.  He did
lots of climbing etc.  I'm checking on him during lunch today to see if
there's been any more bleeding.
 
Dr. Weiss is very good with ferrets and cares for several on the FML.  In
Winter 1997 he didn't feel that the facial and toe hair loss are
adrenal-related.  He has not seen the new loss along the eye and backs of
the legs.  Thought maybe some FMLers could give us some good ideas before we
go back for more testing.
 
Azrael had his annual geriatric blood work done in October/November sometime
and everything was good then.  He has lots of energy as long as I give him
something interesting to do.  Mostly he's just a laid back kind of guy.
Eats, drinks, poops just fine.  Does not have physical contact with my other
ferret but they will sleep in each other's bedding, use same litter boxes
etc.  Just in shifts.
 
Thanks for any input.  If the bleeding occurs again, a vet visit this week
will be made.  If no bleeding, but hair loss continues along the same path,
a visit in early April will be made.
 
Thanks for any help.
Lorali J Barber
Production Editor
301-530-7038
Fax 301-571-8303
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http://www.faseb.org/ajcn
[Posted in FML issue 1882]