I know very little about adrenal disease, and can offer no comment on Debbie Blackners' question regarding the vets' diagnosis. However, I do have some experience with hair loss on one the tail of one of my girls. Gemn had been experiencing hair loss on the end of her tail sporadically from the time she was close to eight months of age. The hair would disappear completely in the summer, and slowly grow back over winter. Last year, her tail was obviously irritating her, she'd nip at it, and spend a lot of time paying attention to it. It didn't help that the other ferrets thought her tail was an ideal toy, either. One morning, I found a sore on her tail, obviously either one of the others, or Gemn herself, had bitten the tail, and caused it to bleed. The vet prescribed some antibiotics, to make sure no infection occurred, and the wound slowly healed. Two months later, there was still no hair on her tail, and there was another wound. This time, the tail became infected, in spite of treatment, and took a long time to heal. She remained with a hairless tail over the winter (I believe it was because the infection had carried on into mid-winter, and it always seemed to grow back slowly). That summer, there was another wound, which again became quickly infected. This time, seeing it recurring, the vet decided to amputate the tail. He suggested that the skin on *only her tail* was allergic to something. Essentially, her tail had an allergy. Strange, in my opinion, but seeing her so miserable, I told him to go ahead with the operation. From the day after her operation, Gemn has been a new ferret. Even though she acted like a ferret (playing, getting excited), she wasn't as exhuberant as the other fuzzies. She used to be able to ignore people quite commendably. Generally one of the least excitable of the bunch, she had always been quiet(er). Literally within the space of a week, Gemn turned from a relatively prim, proper and quiet animal, to a *real ferret*! She dooks and plays, jumps, bounces, and is now the first one to the door (half the time - Vader's pretty quick). There is no sign of any hair loss on the base of her tail (well, stump), nor is there any sign of illness in her at all now. Obviously, although she didn't show it, the irritation of the allergy was sapping her energy. I still have no idea what she was allergic to, since we'd changed everything in her room/cage - given her more/less sun, changing the floor from carpetted to non-carpetted, using different bedding - knowing my luck, she probably had an allergy to the other ferrets! That's the only thing that I can think of that wasn't changed! So, keep it in mind that something as unusual as a tail-specific allergy *has* happened! However, Debbie, from what I have heard about adrenal disease - if Pogo does have it, I would suggest that you do get the operation done. Maybe from a vet who knows something about ferrets. The baldness isn't the only thing that happens. You will end up with a very unhappy, sick fuzzy. There are many people who have more experience on this than I (in fact almost everyone in America probably!), so if I'm wrong, please someone, feel free to tell me (and why)! Good luck with Pogo. Give him, and your daughter, a hug for me. Sam and the fleet five (who are still thinking of Guy at the Rainbow Bridge) [Posted in FML issue 1941]