Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 6.5 year old male fuzzy. about 6mo ago, he started exhibiting signs of AD--fur loss, swollen penis. i took him to the vet who confirmed this. due to his age and his seeming to feel fine, we decided not to do the surgery or medication. the fur loss eventually got so bad he had no fur on his body trunk and very thin fur on his legs, head and tail.
Now it seems the fur loss has totally reversed. at first just the coarse, wiry underlayer of fur grew back. but now it's all back, the white downy middle layer, the guard hairs, everything. if anything, he's even fluffier than before.
The only thing that changed is, i put him and our other fuzzy in a basement room where the only light is from a flourescent bulb that is on a timer and only on for 2 two hour periods a day. anybody have any thoughts?

Adrenal ferrets do sometimes grow their fur back. Most likely, he'll lose it again.
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I've learned that I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy it.

is this a seasonal/cyclical thing? or does it just fall out and grow back at random?

It's seasonal, this may be the last coat your ferret gets. Then again, he may lose this one and get another one in the fall. The lighting may be helping too. I have a little girl who was almost totally nakie until I gave her a melatonin implant. Now she has the thickest coat in the business. There's still so much about these little guys we don't know.
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I've learned that I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy it.

how does the melatonin implant work? my vet didn't mention it.

Sorry it's taken so long to reply, I was busy planning my wedding the past few weeks. Honestly, I'm not really sure how melatonin works. It's a naturally occuring hormone that has something to do with how bodies react to light cycles. Melatek has more info on their site... http://www.melatek.net/pages/1/index.htm
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I've learned that I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy it.