Does anyone know anything about Ferrets?

[DaisyNBuster]

Last night I went in on my albino Ferret, Fudgeand there looks to be something wrong with his eye. His eyes are redwith him being an albino, but his right one has now got a white cloudin the middle of it. NowI am sure this is acommontrait of blindness or a catarax. My little fella is only a baby thoughso I would have thought that would be unlikely. He is in a cage withhis brother, but there is no evident signs or fighting, they play alotbut I would have thought that if it had been an ingury theirwould be evident signs - ie, scratches, blood.

The little tyke is fine in his self eating,drinking, playing, so I amreally not sure what it could be. My vet can't see him until tomorroweither. Do you think that it sounds like he has gone blind in one eye?

Thanks for any help, I am quite woried at the moment.

Vickie

 

[Brandy]

it sounds like cataracts, usually deafness andblindness happens within the first yr, is he a Marshalls ferret? if sohow old is he?? if he is Marshalls and under a yr old, if heis infact blind, then you send Marshalls proof that hes been to the vetand the vet said hes blind, and they will either give you half of yourmoney back that you paid for him or send you a coupon for a free ferret

i wouldnt overly worry about it, if hes going to the vet tomorrow,especially if hes fine good luck at the vets, I reallyhope its nothing serious

 

[DaisyNBuster]

Thanks for repling Brandy. I am not sure what amarchalls ferret is. I got him from a local breeder. He is about 8months old now. So blindness and deafness usually happenwithin the first year? I never knew that thanks for telling me. Itlooks like my baby is blind then . It is whatI suspected,hopefully the vet will tell me for definate, but I have seen blindanimals before and I know the cloud they get over their eyes and itlooks just like that.

Vickie

 

[Rowan]

Hi Vickie

I know zero about ferrets but in a cat or kitten (and I know loadsabout those ) from the symptoms you describe you're looking at ascratch that's happened on the surface of the eye itself. You wouldn'tsee blood and even vets usually check with special drops to see theline of the scratch, it isn't usually visible. It's gone cloudy becauseit's started becoming infected.

Permanent blindness results unless treated in time. The good news isits very easily treated with an antibiotic cream in the eye four timesa day.

I've seen it most in young litters of kittens, they can scratch eachothers eyes when they're playfighting, and I'm guessing it's the samewith your little one.

Love

Kate

 

[m.e.]

I'm at school now, but I know I've got resourcesand stuff on ferrets at home. I ended up rescueing four of them a fewyears ago .I'll see what I can pull up for you later thisafternoon.

 

[DaisyNBuster]

Thanks m.e thats lovely of you!

Kate, you may be right in what you said, my boys do play a lot andmaybe Scamps claws have got into Fudge's eyes. I just rung the vet upand demanded an amergency appointment. It's the only way I am going tofind out for sure what it is.They can fit me in at 6.40pm soits better than nothing. I'll let you all know when we get back.

Oh my poor baby I hope there is something the vet can do !

Thanks to all for getting back to me!

Vickie

 

[Rowan]

I'm glad you could get an appointment today, hopefully it is just a scratch from playing with his brother.

I'll be thinking of you, let us know .

Kate

 

[Brandy]

chances are if hes from a local breeder itwouldnt be blindness,,,,Marshalls is a huge ferret farm who produceslarge numbers of ferrets and sells them all over the world to petstores....they are usually not healthy and certain colors such asalbino, panda, blaze,,etc are prone to deafness and albinos *I think*have alot of problems with their eyes becuase of the lack ofpigment,,,,Ill have to dig out my ferrets for dummies book and see whatit says in there,,

 

[DaisyNBuster]

Brandy wrote:

chances are if hes from a local breeder it wouldnt beblindness,,,,Marshalls is a huge ferret farm who produces large numbersof ferrets and sells them all over the world to pet stores....they areusually not healthy and certain colors such as albino, panda,blaze,,etc are prone to deafness and albinos *I think* have alot ofproblems with their eyes becuase of the lack of pigment,,,,Ill have todig out my ferrets for dummies book and see what it says in there,,

No he isn't a Marchalls ferret then. Ferrets for dummies - I was going to get that book. Do you have ferrets?

Vickie

 

[Brandy]

Ive had 5 ferrets in total but now only have 3,they are currently being babysat by petkeeper(shes a member here) Icouldnt handle their smell with this pregnancy:?

they would make me sick every time I went near them,,,Shannon has atotal including mine of 11 ferrets at her home right now,,she is anawesome ferret mommy!!!

I HIGHLY recommend Ferrets for dummies, Kim Schilling wrote it andtheres EVERYTHING plus more in it,,,its awesome and well written!!

 

[DaisyNBuster]

Brandy wrote:

Ivehad 5 ferrets in total but now only have 3, they are currently beingbabysat by petkeeper(shes a member here) I couldnt handle their smellwith this pregnancy:?

they would make me sick every time I went near them,,,Shannon has atotal including mine of 11 ferrets at her home right now,,she is anawesome ferret mommy!!!

LOL Brandy, I have to say that in early pregnancy the smell of themdefinatley didn't help with the morning sickness!I madeRyan clean them out all the time. I was constantly washing theirBlankieto try and help! It doesnt seem to bad now though.

Vickie

 

[Brandy]

thats the thing Craig wouldnt help!!! LOL......

and if I only had mornign sickness it wouldnt have been to awfully badbut I am 24/7 nauseous,,,even into my second trimester,,,EVERYTHING andANYTHING will and does make me sick,,,,lol

 

[DaisyNBuster]

I've been to the vets. It turns out my baby hascaterax and will lose his sight and the vet is unsure if his second eyewill hold out.

Unfortunatley any treatment would be risky with a small animal and hesaid that there is a low success rate with treatment and it would bevery expensive - more that £500. He thinks it is best not to go throughwith treatment as it probably wouldn't work. He said he will try to getmore information for me tomorrow and give me a ring back.

Whatever happens though it looks like my boy will go blind

Vickie

 

[*nepo*]

I'm sorry, will he go blindin both eyes?One time Iwent to a petstore and 2 ferrets that lived in a cage together getbegging for pets, they were so cute.

 

[Brandy]

a blind ferret can live EXTREMLY happy,,,,,,,

a few things to remember,,,dont startle them,,,,if they get tofrightened they might have a scared poop(im sure you know what thatis), and may possibly bite out of fear,,before he goes completly blind,set up everything the way you will want it for the rest of hislife,,,,it will be hard on him if you start rearranging things,,,butdont worry he will lead a happy, healthy life

 

[*nepo*]

Brandy wrote:

a blind ferret can live EXTREMLY happy,,,,,,,

a few things to remember,,,dont startle them,,,,if they get tofrightened they might have a scared poop(im sure you know what thatis), and may possibly bite out of fear,,before he goes completly blind,set up everything the way you will want it for the rest of hislife,,,,it will be hard on him if you start rearranging things,,,butdont worry he will lead a happy, healthy life

I know, but it's kind of sad at first, until the ferret and you get used to it.

 

[DaisyNBuster]

Thanks Brandy and Nepo. It maybe that Fudgesother eye may never lose the sight so he will be ok. The only thing is,his brother will probably not know what has happened and still treathim as normal. There might come a time when I need to seperate them,which will be sad as they are growing up together.

I just pray that his other eye will stay healthy. I will do as you saidBrandy and make sure that his enviroment stays the same, I will also becautious when handling him not to frighten hime. I'll put my hand inand let him come to me first. I haven't told my little girl yet, Idon't think she will understand. She never handles him so it doesn'tmatter too much.

With all the love we will give him he will lead a happy life - I will make sure of it

Vickie

 

[m.e.]

Vickie, I'm so sorry to hear the poor prognosis It sounds like he has a great mommy thats going to take care of him,though, so I'm sure it will all work out for good.

I found a couple articles online about living with blind ferrets. Themain thing I picked up on, and learned with my own ferrets, is thatthey really don't have great eyesight anyway. So blindness isnot as debilitating as it would be with other animals. Ferrets mainlyrely on their other senses, and most will live perfectly normal livesand get around just as well as their sighted counterparts.

Living With a Blind Ferret - scroll down a bit for the article

Ferret Blindness

 

[cirrustwi]

Vickie,

A word of encouragement...ferrets have really poor eyesight no matterwhat. I have 2 deaf ferrets and they live quitely happily aslong as you don't startle them, although Nemo is soo laidback.

Ferrets always lack depth perception...haven't you seen them just walkoff something? Mine do all the time. Any critterwith a single color eye doesn't have very good eyesight.

I have 6 ferrets right now and try to be up on as much knowledge as Ican. If you have any questions, e-mail me. I canalso give you a bunch of links and book/article references.

Jen

 

[showrabbits]

Hi,

It is true that ferrets do realy on alot of other things than their eyesight. Mostly smell. I work at a pet store and we have a costumer whohas a blind ferret. She walks him in on a leash and he WALKS aroundlike he is king. We didnt know he was blind he just stayed next to hislittle ferret friend and did fine. Just found out recently that he waswhen I took a closer look at him he was missing one eye and the otherwasnt right at all. I dont know what happend but I think she rescuedit. Oh if it is cataracts i think there is a surgery that would help Ithink that they just flip the lenses in the eye not sure if that ispossible or not in this case.