We recently took in a little boy, MF, blaze about 2yrs old. He had been
starved, drugs are infinitely more important than feeding your ferret,
kept in a 2x3 cage for most of the last six months, and not handled
much. Besides having trust issues, his musculature was poor and he is
of course deaf.

He was recouping well, learning to trust his foster parents, eating,
activity, poops all normal. Then suddenly in about week 2, his hair
fell out and his skin turned bright red. He still has the hair on his
head, but all of his under coat is gone and most of his guard hairs
as well, all within about 3 days.

Our first thought was maybe spider bite or an allergen. We stripped
his cage, bedding and everything got washed in hot water, no soaps,
softeners, etc, just in case. We gave him benedryl, then when that was
insufficient, pred. It's been three weeks and he is still red. We're
stumped, his doctor is stumped. His foster home includes 8-10 other
ferrets and no one else has a problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks guys.

Brenda, Momma to the FurpeopleWeyr
FurpeopleWeyr.com

[Posted in FML 6442]