I have a six year old albino sprite. A few years ago she began losing her hair and her vulva began to swell. I took her to a vet for adrenal surgery. He could not locate the adrenal gland because it was embedded in a fat pad. After searching for some time he sewed her back up. In the process he apparently damaged a kidney which was leaking urine inside her body. He performed emergency surgery that night and removed the damaged kidney. She ended up with peritonitis and pancreatitis. She spent a week in the hospital but pulled through. The vet said he removed everything in the area and thought he had gotten the adrenal too. She continued to lose hair and the vulva swelling never went down. I've been feeding my ferrets Science Diet and after this switched to ProPlan because someone told me it would be easier for her to digest. In November I switched to the new Totally Ferret ferret food. In the last few weeks, my ferret, Starrs, suddenly wanted to play all the time. She had been sleeping an awful lot. In fact, I wondered if she would make it through the winter. She also started to regain muscle mass. A few days ago when I picked her up I noticed her skin felt different. She was growing in new hair! And the swelling in her vulva had gone down to almost normal size. Granted it doesn't fell like a really great coat but it is hair. Could the new food be causing this turn around? Two of my other ferrets who had the mystery virus last summer had really sparse coats and lost a lot of muscle mass and they've gotten in mice new coats and have put on weight and have perked up considerably. Drs. Williams or Brown do you think nutrition can have such an effect. It may be coincidence but I'm going to stick with the new food anyway. I'm interested in anyone's opinion on this. Cindy Sooy [Posted in FML issue 0803]