Sudden large fur loss:
We had two who did that.  For one it turned out that the ferret had
suddenly taken to belly rubbing on the edge of a cardboard tube.  Of
course, sometimes a rapid and large loss in one location is indicative
of a serious adrenal tumor.  We had another who had a malignant one who
lost all of her lower back fur in less than a week.  Rapid surgical
response saved her life and she went on to have many years ahead of her.
 
If the other ferret has actually gotten compulsive about grooming know
that ferret has a serious furball risk so will also need a vet check
in that case and laxatives if something else does not contra- indicate
their use.  Are these ferrets who get a lot of exciting exercise time
and interaction?  Those are very important for avoiding repetitive
behaviors in ferrets.
 
Jodi, yes, there are health vulnerabilities and malformations beyond
deafness which are more common with the sorts of neural crest genetic
variants that cause panda markings.  Deafness is quite common with panda
markings in ferrets.  You will want to read up on "neural crest" in
places like
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret- Genetics/ ,
http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html , and
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/ .
 
Although Waardensburg is often mentioned Dr. Brett Middleton (a classical
geneticist) has since mentioned that the KIT Oncogene is a more likely
culprit in most of these ferrets, so the neural crest connection was
right when WS was first proposed but the actual most common type in
ferrets was likley wrong.  For info on working with a deaf ferret:
http:// wolfysluv.jacksnet.com/deaf.html
 
Sukie
(not a vet; 24 years with ferrets in the family)
[Posted in FML issue 4867]