To Gary H.
 
> "About like someone ran a shaver along the side of his tail".
>
>    Just in the last month he is agressively mounting and trying to mate
>with spayed females, hanging on their neck, etc.  He also is trying to mate
>with neutered males!??
 
Gary -
 
        We could be dealing with the early stages of adrenal disease - the
release of sex hormones into the system of male ferrets can have
unpredictable response.  Although we would think that a male ferret would
lose all interest in sex, it is well known that hyperestrogenism can cause
satyrism in rare cases.  Adrenal tumurs may also release testosterone or its
precursors in rare cases.
 
        Another possibility is cryptorchidism.  Most abdominally retained
testicles cannot secrete testosterone and secrete estrogen.  But the
majority of crypt ferrets that I have seen have testicles in the inguinal
canal, away from the heat of the abdominal cavity, and have functional
spermatogenesis.
 
        Finally, you would have to consider stress as the cause of the hair
loss on the tail, and the behavioral change simply to be a manifestation of
a battle for dominance.  It is most unlikely that the cutaneous and
behavioral signs are not related, but you have to consider it.
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP
Dept. of Vet Path, AFIP
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Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
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[Posted in FML issue 1281]