Orange skin and strong musk?

[marvel]

Hi all! First note, I plan to take Pippi to the vet as soon as possible. However, we live remotely and the vet is booked out several weeks, so I wanted to see what your experiences were.

The other morning I noticed my 2 yr old girl's chest was orange tinged. At the root, there are darker orangeish red dots. She's definitely muskier than normal--she almost always has no smell compared to my male. She isn't itching it, she's still her usual high energy self, she's eating and drinking normal.

The only change recently has been nice weather allowing us to go outside more. Otherwise everything has stayed the same. I can try to post pics from my computer in a bit here, on my phone at the moment.

Any thoughts? Appreciate any help!

[raven]

Not an expert but seems like just extra oil production from the changing seasons if everything else seems to be normal?

If something was off it could be early signs of adrenal but that usually comes with itchiness, hair loss on the tail/rump, in my case it was tail which I just chopped up to being rat tail but then the shoulders and eventually the rump happened.

[marvel]

Thanks! Adrenal is what I was worried about, but she isn't itching, doesn't have any hair loss, and that extra musky scent made me wonder. Here is what it looks like. It is really just on her front legs/chest as of now.

[unclejoe]

how old is Pippi? The spots are what concern me, as the appear similar to early rat tail. But I've had several cases of adrenal, and even with hair loss beginning on other parts of the body, I've only seen the spots on the tail.  Best of luck at the vet

[marvel]

She turned 2 yrs old not even a month ago.

[unclejoe]

that's pretty young for adrenal but not unheard of. May I ask where you are and where Pippi is from and has she been spayed?

Interesting observation:  Of my 30 ferrets only 12 have been female.  3 have had adrenal, and Miss Prissy was nearly 8 yo when she first showed signs, and she lived past 10, the oldest ferret we've had.  Kahlua was 6 at first dx.  She made it to about 7 1/2. 

7 males had it, but a lot of them were re-home/rescues with uncertain birthdates, adopted when I was a rookie.  I will say that as I gained experience and knowledge from this site and many others, the incidence of adrenal decreased dramatically.  At one time I was treating 3 adrenal pts at once, and Prissy was the last one.  Prissy passed over 4 years ago.  Abita (F) and Prissy lived over 2 years on pred and des.  Some of the males got blessed by the Big 3 comorbidly and went quick.  Larry, Jaffa and Sumo.

Back when this and other forums were very active, I tried to start a less-than-scientific study based on forum input attempting to compile prevalence data on the Big 3 based on breeder, sex, whole vs. altered, age, living accommodations and diet. Right about then everyone went to facebook, so I didn't get nuthin valuable.  

[raven]

Also maybe consider looking into her diet?

[marvel]

What would I be looking for with her diet? She gets Intune, since it is grain free and one of the better rated foods I could find. We tried Wysong for them but it was too much and gave runny poos.

She has been spayed. We are in eastern Montana, and she is a Marshall's ferret. I would have to look at date she came home, but I know it was right at the age they can because ferrets were dang near impossible to find here and the pet store held her for me, so she didn't spend long there (so wouldn't have eaten Marshall kibbles long--I switched as soon as we got home). She saw the vet a few months back for her shots and annual check-up. She has never had any serious health issues.

That's interesting Unclejoe! It would be amazing to have more information on it.

[raven]

I don't know much about Intune but just glancing over the ingredients I'm seeing tapioca, potatoes, dried Beet Pulp (Sugar Removed), and flaxseed. So while grain free which is good there's still ingredients in there that ferrets can't really process due to being obligate carnivores and that could be aiding the access oil production but this is just a guess on my part.

Of course I'm going to recommend raw feeding as that's custom here, but I understand that can be a difficult task especially with the mentor program being closed. Consider looking into a high grade cat food, preferably the first ingredient being a meat rather than a meal "Chicken meal, turkey meal etc." I'm typically pro Wysong but I have heard mixed reviews.

[marvel]

I did look into cat foods, but when I did I had endless issues finding one that didn't have peas that my ferrets would eat. I see folks recommend Orijen, but every type I looked into had peas. I did find an Instinct brand type that was pea-free, but could not coax either ferret into trying it. Happy to hear suggestions though! I bought about 4 different ones to try feeding and they turned their tiny noses up at each kind. Wysong would only be possible mixed because of the runny poo, and then I hit the same wall of what do I mix with that doesn't have something else they shouldn't have.

I would love to do raw, but unfortunately it isn't feasible at this time. We live extremely rural and finding what we need for raw is dang near impossible. With that said, we live on a ranch, and are moving toward being more self-sustaining, so down the road it could very well be possible as we get meat chickens, have our cattle processed, etc. But even so, any attempt to give my ferrets raw food has been met with turning their noses up, even when I try mixing it, etc, so yes, without more guidance that might be futile.

[raven]

Hmm that is frustrating i'll browse around a little bit after work today. Getting my girls onto raw was definitely a task. I had to start with it blended into a soup/paste and then i'd put it on a spoon and boop them with it so that they had to lick it off their face and we had to do that for a while I don't recall the exact length of time, and then we slowly worked up to teeny tiny slivers to chunks etc., so definitely a process lol. My boys took to raw very easily though they were a bit younger than my girls when we started so maybe that's why.

How does Pippi feel about salmon oil? That has been my saving grace to get my ferrets to do anything lol. They didn't take to that right away either it didn't take as long as raw but now they are obsessed, and some brand specific... lol.

Wishing you luck with your future plans for the ranch, that sounds great!