To Megan Wisdom:
>My little baby (4yr old baby) Chelsea has always had hair loss problems
>on the tail.  I know this can be normal, but shouldn't it have grown
>back by now?  She doesn't have any of the black mite looking scabs,
>just beautiful bare skin on her tail.  She has hair from the base to
>about 2 inches, but then bare.  Is there a way to get it to grow back?
>She is, and has always been completely healthy and doesn't have hair
>loss anywhere else.
 
        Megan - We do see this sometimes, and I wish I could give you a
definitive answer.  Adrenal disease is always a possibility in ferrets that
won't regrow the hair.  I agree that six months is a long time. I would keep
watching carefully for thinning of the hair in other areas.  With her
history, she may have a low-grade adrenal lesion that is not secreting
enough estrogen to cause generalized hair loss, but to prevent regrowth of
hair loss from cyclic tail alopecia, or rat tail.
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP
Dept. of Vet Path, AFIP
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Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
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[Posted in FML issue 1302]