Dr. Williams, Dr. Weiss or anyone who can help:
 
I have a problem that I don't think I've ever read about on the list.  That
is other than when I posted about it a month or so ago and got no response.
 
Here's the problem.  A month or two ago I noticed my female sable (Mica) had
a small sore on her back an inch or so below the shoulder blades to the left
hand side.  There was some dried blood crusted on the sore but no associated
itching or scratching.  No other symptoms or changes have been noted.
Actually she was otherwise remarkably healthy and happy.  I washed the dried
blood off and did an extremely thorough check for fleas or any other
potential parasite on my three ferrets and my cat.  None were noted.  The
sore healed but then a week or so reappeared.  Again, I washed it off and
checked for fleas.  None noted again.
 
This morning my kids got their somewhat bi-weekely to monthly baths and this
time I noted a small sore between the shoulder blades of Lillith.  No blood
just a small brown spec the size of a pinhead (actually a bit smaller).  Yet
another flea check revealed nothing, not even flea dirt (before the bath of
course).  Woodrow also had a sore with dried blood in the same location as
Mica's was.  It is somewhat round and a little larger than a pinhead.  It
appears to be about 2 mm in diameter.  Again, no other symptoms are noted
and it did not bother either when I washed the blood off by rubbing it
gently under lukewarm water before his bath.
 
I can think of no reason that these sores would appear again and again.
Hopefully you can help out cause I'm stumped.  I'm fairly knowledgeable
about health problems though not anything near some of the people here so I
hope one of you can speculate on why this would be happening.  The only
thing I can think of is that they are either doing it to each other when
play fighting, though they don't seem to play that rough or they might be
getting scratched on something (but it does look more like a sore than a
scratch to me).
 
Hope you can help me out,
 
Steven (Ferret Section Leader) (Animals Forum - GO PETSTWO) (Compuserve)
[Posted in FML issue 1318]