Dear Kris:
 
>Fizz-gig is losing hair all over his body!!
 
>I had him vaccinated last Friday, and he's been losing hair since!  I
>walked in there with a ferret full of a thick, beautiful winter coat, now
>he's losing all of his long hairs, he still has the short body-fur and
>there are no bald spots yet.
 
>I am opposed to vaccinations, he had his shots when he was a kit, I didn't
>want to vaccinate him again, but he likes to go outside so I figured I'd
>better get his Can. Distemp shots just to be sure.  We used Fera-vac and
>pre-treated with children's Benadryl.  There was no reaction afterwards.
>Has anyone heard of vaccinations bringing-on adrenal disease?
 
 
Not all profound shedding is the result of adrenal disease - there are
occasional times when, following a stressful event, animals will lose large
amounts of mature hair.  The condition is known as "telogen effluvium" -
telogen hairs are mature hairs which will no longer grow, and effluvium is
a synchronized loss.  Serious illness, shock, high fever, pregnancy, and
lactation have all been incriminated in other animal species - I am not
aware of any reports in the ferret.  In this condition, the insult results
in synchronization of hair follicles.  Mature hairs, which are normally
lost at a fairly random pattern around the body, all are forced out at the
same timeby new growing hairs within their follicles .  The hair loss is
usually temporary, and fully replaced.
 
While adrenal disease may be at the root of this problem, the hair loss is
generally much more subtle and prolonged - ferrets usually do not become
hyperestrogenic overnight, and it usually takes weeks to months of
excessive levels of estrogen to cause significant enough changes in the
hair follicles for the hair shafts to be shed.
 
What to do?  Wait and see, again.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3221]