At the last IFA board meeting a vet gave a presentation "cushings disease."
He and a number of other vets are writing a paper on it and it is their
opinion that there is no such thing as cushings disease in ferrets.  What he
described sounds much like what the symptoms are in this case.
 
A major reason for gradual hair loss in ferrets is tumors which develop on
the adreanal (don't know if I am spelling that correctly) glands.  It causes
them to produce estrogen, thus causing hair loss.  The vet said that the only
thing to do is to go in and remove the tumor, and the gland if necessard (
(ferrets have two of them).  He said if it were not removed it would eventually
cause the ferret to die.  He also mentioned that they could live anywhere from
2 to 4 years with such a condition, but that often they would die a lot
earlier.  Also, if it is such a case and the tumor is removed the ferrets
grow the hair right back.  He showed slides of "before and after cases" and
it was amazing.  I will post his name here as soon as I get a chance to look
it up and your friend can give him a call (he is from the Pittsburgh area.)
 
Hope this has been of some help...
 
Beau
                                                                          
[Posted in FML 0150]