>From:    Gail Shochet <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: help..possible hairball
>Can anyone add anything regarding hairballs?  Can/will they dissolve
>eventually (I don't think so, but I had to ask anyway)?  Does the Petromalt
>do any good?  How much (and how often) should I administer?  I've been
>giving a pea-sized amount on a daily basis.
 
Doesn't sound like nearly enough to do any good.  We use Laxatone and give
about a one inch long strip, the diameter of the opening of the tube.  When
they're shedding, we give it to them once a day.
 
>From:    Stan Siatkowski <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Shedding or something more serious?
>Is the hair loss due to adrenal problems a complete hair loss, I mean
>bald as an egg?  Or is it loss of most of the hair?  I've read the medical
>FAQs, but would like some comments from people who have experienced this.
 
It seems that ferrets in the U.S. don't shed on schedule due to the abnormal
lighting patterms to which we subject them.  My Spaz blew his winter coat
last December.  Hardly appropriate timing.  Beasley blew his over a year
and a half ago and has not gotten his winter coat back since.  Some at the
shelter are putting on their winter coat/weight as we speak.
 
Adrenal hair loss is usually gradual.  Yes, they can go bald as an egg, but
it doesn't happen quickly.  One usually starts to notice thinning along the
shoulders or rump and it becomes thinner and thinner and gradually spreads.
It usually takes months before the ferret became bald.  Hard to say from
here, but it sounds like Stash is shedding.
 
For the ferrets,
Mike
 
* Michael F. Janke, [log in to unmask]
* Secretary, South Florida Ferret Club & Rescue
*
* Visit our web site:  http://www.miamiferret.org
[Posted in FML issue 2374]