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 [log in to unmask] OR Chief Pathologist, AccuPath [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 1281]