Fellow FMLers, I am in desperate need of some advice. I have three ferrets - one of which has to be let out separately. She is five years old and I got her this past July. She was an only ferret and WOULD NOT integrate with my other two. She has wiggled her way into my heart and sleeps with me every night. However I am very worried about her. After bringing her into my home in July she proceeded to lose all of the fur on her tail - she is completely bald there except for a little tuft on the end. I know this is caused from the stress of leaving her owner of five years plus being around other ferrets which absolutely TERRIFIES her to no end. After a couple of months, I gave up on trying to integrate her. Since then she has been one happy little ferret! She dooks continuously the whole time she is out, she runs to me for affection all the time, she curls up and has to be touching me when she sleeps, etc. Yet her tail hair has not grown back; in fact, it has gotten red and scaly and seems to be rather sore to the touch. I am rather desperate at this point because I don't know what to do. The place where I work only pays us once per month!!! and being right after Christmas, I certainly won't have any funds for the vet for awhile. I've been putting a little polysporin on it over the last few days and her tail marginally improved. She certainly doesn't have the same stressors in her life compared to when I first brought her home, and she is not losing any additional hair anywhere else on her body, so why isn't it growing back? Also, the redness and flakiness on her tail really only came to my attention recently. I am writing from Nova Scotia and it is damned cold up here (-15 degrees C), could this be causing it? She hasn't been outside except for the drive down to my parents for Christmas (1 1/2 hrs.), but the heat has been cranked so the apartment is probably drier - forced air. Any ideas, suggestions, solutions? This doesn't seem like normal stress-related hair loss to me, originally yes, but not anymore. HELP. If you could e-mail me directly I would appreciate it. I just got on a new server before Christmas so all my old mail had to be transferred and I have a lot of catching up to do (I could never get on the other server). Thanks in advance. Gail (a VERY worried mom) [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 1434]