Hello everyone!
 
I have been reading the FML avidly for several months,
but now I have a question for all you experts out there.
 
Background:  My first ferret, Antigone (or Tig) is about
6 or 7 years old, and I got her a year and a half ago
from a good friend who no longer had time to give her the
love and attention she needed.  Tig was suffering from
lack of human contact and vitamins, so she was a bit
anti-social for a while, but now she's a sweetie, and her
coat is *much* healthier than it was.  About a month ago,
I adopted a second sable female from the local Humane Society
(she had been lost or abandoned), partly to be company for
Tig, and we named her Minima (Min, for short).  They're still
in the territory-establishing stage, it seems; they are getting
better about not actually biting each other, but they still
make a show of it, pouncing and sqeaking.  We gave them a
bath together yesterday (I can't remember who advised that, but
thanks) and they were more social while actually *in* the
tub and being dried, but basically the same once they were
both dry.
 
I realize after that (longish) preamble that I actually have
several questions.
 
1.  Tig's coat has gone from being dry and sparse with scabby
    skin halfway up her back, to soft and luxurious, with
    healthy pink skin.  Unfortunately, her tail isn't keeping
    pace.  It's *much* better than it was, but still pretty
    sparse (it was almost bald, and grey and scabby when I got
    her).  Both ferrets are on Science Diet + Linatone +
    Veterol X:  is there anything else I can do (perhaps specific
    to the tail area)?
 
2.  Is there anything I can do to improve/speed up Tig accepting
    Min into "her territory"?  Min is now frightened of Tig, and
    usually doesn't start any fights, but if Tig comes up to her
    (seemingly curious) she will often nip at her, probably in
    defence, since she remembers being bitten before.  Tig actually
    broke the skin on Min's back and nose when I first got her, but
    she doesn't seem to be doing that anymore.
 
3.  When I first got Min, I noticed a hairless spot on her back,
    about 1" x 1/2".  At first I thought she had been shaved for
    some reason, but the fur is not growing back in at all.
    I have concluded that it is a bald patch.  Has anyone else
    ever seen a ferret with a bald patch?  Could there be a reason
    for this?
 
4.  This is a what actually prompted me to post:  last night when
    I was about to put Tig in her cage for the night, I was holding
    her in my lap for a few minutes.  As I went to put her into
    the cage, she jumped down from my hands, raced around the cage
    like crazy, dug at the corner frantically for a minute, then
    ran into her sleeping box and seemed to be trying to throw up
    (I didn't think that ferrets could).  She repeated this procedure
    two or three times, then actually did throw up about 1/8 to 1/4
    of a teaspoon of a whitish liquid.  She tried to throw up again
    a few times, without success, then settled down and seemed fine.
    I gave her a small amount of Science Diet and lots of fresh water
    and she seems fine now (the next morning).
 
    Does anyone have any idea what was happening to her, or why?
    Do ferrets get hairballs?  (there was no hair/fur in what she
    threw up)  The only things she eats are Science Diet, and the
    two vitamins, and apple juice (the only human-food she likes,
    apart from peanut butter, which I don't give her because she's
    fat enough already).
 
Sorry for the rather long post, and thanks in advance for any
suggestions or ideas.
 
Victoria (also Tig and Min)
 
[Posted in FML issue 0413]