By David Pescovitz at 10:29 am Wednesday, Jul 21
I received a ton of mail about the
mysterious animal recently spotted in central Maryland. One reader asked his father, a retired veterinary pathologist, to speculate on the origin of the unique specimen:
"In my opinion... it looks like a fox with Cushing's Syndrome. An adenoma of either the pituitary or hyperplasia or adenoma of the adrenal gland cortex produces hyperadrenalcorticism (Cushing's Disease in humans). This syndrome causes a thinning of the epidermis of the skin and hyperpigmentation - which you see in this animal - thin, patchy dark colored skin - also you see a distinct pattern of hair loss, similar to what is shown in these photographs - Loss of hair on the body with retension on head and lower extremities - Hair also becomes brittle. Additionally the animals become very thin with weird weight distribution - bodies become somewhat barrel shaped. So my reply is this photo depicts a fox with an endocrine disorder."
Meanwhile, BB reader Rick points us to a few new photos of the magical animal.
Link
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