concerned about friends skunk

[MDF]

an old friend of mine was telling me how her 3 female skunks and1 male are looking "grotty" i went over to have a look and they realy did look bad. this was a few months ago, i said leave it abit, might just be a month thing. well they are stil the same, the backs of their necks are very short (hairwise) few scabs and you can see the reds of their necks. apparently they have been like that for a while. i asked what their diet was and they said handful of carrots, apples, half a boiled egg each, brocolli, red/ green / yello peppers, autarki, the occasional almonds and vionate sprinkled on top.
ive worked with skunks in the past but have never had this happen
has anyone had this before? i really am worried about them.

James

[loulou]

are the females entire and the male too come to think of it

when i say entire i mean all their sex organs etc not glands

[Fixx]

Might want to check the skin for mites as well, or something else that may be causing the irritation.

[MDF]

i know the male has got his genitals, and im pretty sure the females do not. they are all decented. is the diet right? as i said i havnt kept them in a while so i cant rember what i fed them

[Nerys]

if the male is entire, then it may well be mating marks.. the males scruff the females quite vigerously..

diet wise.. could do with a bit more variation, and a bit more protein, or at least that would more along my ideas.

i would look to increase the variety of veg, especially away from just the sweet things like carrot and pepper, and also think about introducing things like cooked chicken, tuna if they will take it, and livefoods.

veg wise, mine get things like marrow, courgette, sweetcorn, aubergine, cabbage (red/white/savoy type) broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin, squash, parsnip, turnip, celery, peppers, carrots, beans of many sorts, sweet potato, Kale.. and some of the more unusal veg, like Dodi's for instance, when they are around.

I don't feed a lot of fruit, as some of the veg i use it quite high sugar anyway, but they do get a small amount of things like apples, pears, banana, melon, mango, papaya, berries, peach, plum, nectarine, apricot, cherry.. basically, they get a small amount of whatever i am making up for the 3 kinkajou's here.

fruit to veg proportions.. i go about 70% veg, 5% fruit, 10% protein, 5% dairy, 5% other

other includes things like pulses, brown bread, pasta, rice, cooked potato (never raw)

things to avoid are:

Grapes, avocado and rhubarb
Garlic, Raw Potato, Asapargus
Fried Foods
Processed or man made foods
& foods designed for animals who have different dietry needs (most notably cat and ferret food, which is designed to be eaten by obligate carnivores)

I also feed mine cottage cheese and yoghurt, but not everything feeds those. mine seem to cope alright with them

i do from time to time also give raw meaty bones, dead rodents, and raw chicken wings / dead chicks

it might also be worth getting some skunk vitamin supplement, i'm fairly sure glidergirl at Shropshire Exotics (lou&fixx will have her contacts to hand i am sure)

hth

Nerys

(oh.. were in the uk is your friend based?)

[MDF]

but he also has another male (genitals intact) and he is absolutly fine. he has 3 enclosures alltogether, both males have their own and the girls share the other. the male who is next to the girls is the one who is looking rough.

my friend lives near Windsor but im not sure the exact loaction.

[Nerys]

Hmmm... a parasite check would, as ray mentioned, also be worth doing, although if he has 3 pens, you would have thought that if it were mites or fleas, they would have spread into all the pens,

mind you, if its diet based, and they all get the same, you would also expect to see the same issues in all the skunks.

so.. he has 5 at the moment? 3 girls and 2 boys? can you find out for definite if the girls have been spayed?

Males do have a season as well, i am wondering if the male is maybe stressed trying to get at the females,

i do have one here who, when stressed, will hair pull. he has now grown back most of his tail and hind leg fur, but he was decidely naked at one point, before i twigged the problem.

N

[naminé]

I think this might also be that these skunks are into "season, heat".

It may sound silly because alot of websites mention about skunk's mating season only being between February and March, while we all know that there are many skunks which even mate in winter and some in the heat of summermonths.

I don't think the mating season for pet skunks is the same as for the ones observed in the wild and so this might also be that these females and male are into their heatcycle as well.

At this moment I also have a "grotty" female: she lost alot of hair on her rear and hindlegs ,tail. But she's definitely into the "do me one more time lad! " period.
There isn't anything wrong with the diet as the other two look healthy , although my male also has biting wounds in his neck(scabs): the female drags him to her nest where she wants to do some more whoopee, but he doesn't really fight back but gives her a pleasure from time to time: resulting in the hairloss of the female; most skunks will do it once or twice and get over it , but if they stay longer into the heatcycle, this may result in poor looking fur.
Just check for parasites, deworm them, keep a balanced diet and observe their behavior because not every skunk is the same.
Whenever my male skunk tries to leave the nest ,the other female runs after him, jumping his back and dragging him while biting his neck; to their nest again.
keep us updated if anything changes?

[MDF]

thanks for the advice guys, ive just driven up and taken one home with me. she's just had a shower and already looks healthier. im hoping that being away fromt the males might help her abit. i know the girls have all been spayed. im not sure if it is a breeding season thing or not cos i saw her just before xmas and she was very simular, who knows having the boys near by might be a problem. if the one i have now gets better and the others dont i think we have an answer. heres a pic of her.

[crazysnakedude]

oooow that does look abit sore doesnt it, good luck james, keep us up to date