I know very little about adrenal disease, and can offer no comment on Debbie
Blackners' question regarding the vets' diagnosis.  However, I do have some
experience with hair loss on one the tail of one of my girls.
 
Gemn had been experiencing hair loss on the end of her tail sporadically
from the time she was close to eight months of age.  The hair would
disappear completely in the summer, and slowly grow back over winter.  Last
year, her tail was obviously irritating her, she'd nip at it, and spend a
lot of time paying attention to it.  It didn't help that the other ferrets
thought her tail was an ideal toy, either.  One morning, I found a sore on
her tail, obviously either one of the others, or Gemn herself, had bitten
the tail, and caused it to bleed.  The vet prescribed some antibiotics, to
make sure no infection occurred, and the wound slowly healed.  Two months
later, there was still no hair on her tail, and there was another wound.
This time, the tail became infected, in spite of treatment, and took a long
time to heal.  She remained with a hairless tail over the winter (I believe
it was because the infection had carried on into mid-winter, and it always
seemed to grow back slowly).  That summer, there was another wound, which
again became quickly infected.  This time, seeing it recurring, the vet
decided to amputate the tail.  He suggested that the skin on *only her tail*
was allergic to something.  Essentially, her tail had an allergy.  Strange,
in my opinion, but seeing her so miserable, I told him to go ahead with the
operation.
 
From the day after her operation, Gemn has been a new ferret.  Even though
she acted like a ferret (playing, getting excited), she wasn't as exhuberant
as the other fuzzies.  She used to be able to ignore people quite
commendably.  Generally one of the least excitable of the bunch, she had
always been quiet(er).  Literally within the space of a week, Gemn turned
from a relatively prim, proper and quiet animal, to a *real ferret*!  She
dooks and plays, jumps, bounces, and is now the first one to the door (half
the time - Vader's pretty quick).  There is no sign of any hair loss on the
base of her tail (well, stump), nor is there any sign of illness in her at
all now.  Obviously, although she didn't show it, the irritation of the
allergy was sapping her energy.  I still have no idea what she was allergic
to, since we'd changed everything in her room/cage - given her more/less
sun, changing the floor from carpetted to non-carpetted, using different
bedding - knowing my luck, she probably had an allergy to the other ferrets!
That's the only thing that I can think of that wasn't changed!
 
So, keep it in mind that something as unusual as a tail-specific allergy
*has* happened!
 
However, Debbie, from what I have heard about adrenal disease - if Pogo does
have it, I would suggest that you do get the operation done.  Maybe from a
vet who knows something about ferrets.  The baldness isn't the only thing
that happens.  You will end up with a very unhappy, sick fuzzy.  There are
many people who have more experience on this than I (in fact almost everyone
in America probably!), so if I'm wrong, please someone, feel free to tell me
(and why)!
 
Good luck with Pogo. Give him, and your daughter, a hug for me.
 
Sam and the fleet five (who are still thinking of Guy at the Rainbow
Bridge)
[Posted in FML issue 1941]