From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2001-04-26 04:00:00 UTC
Subject: Re: vaccine reaction
I was wondering some things in relation to the facial growth. Do
ferrets ever have eczema? Do they get hives? Do they ever possibly
have cystic responses locally to hives or to sores from eczema? (Some
people with eczema can get skin sores and sometimes cysts can develop
in those areas and come up again whenever the eczema is set off.)
In relation to the ferret with the tear duct problem: not only can
they clear with a lot of squirting but sometimes with bubbles if a
valve is missing or compromised. In situations in which the tear
duct is blocked or a ferret has dry-eye, artificial tears must be
used often to prevent corneal damage or disease, and eye gel products
can also be useful. Years ago we had a girl who first was sent to a
veterinary opthalmologist (who had at first been a human one and I
think also a prof for part of that time before getting his veterinary
degree) because she had a lot of eye scarring from where a male bit
through an eye during mating before she came to us. The eye retained
partial sight for light and shadow in part of it. She had serious
dry eye, though, and as this expert followed her he came to the
conclusion that she had something similar to Sjogren's Syndrome. She
eventually died from having too extensive mucus membrane damage to
her intestine. This was MANY years ago, and I don't even recall the
vet's name. He was in southern New Jersey and we'd have to spend
much of the day traveling each time Haleakala had an appointment due
the driving, but Hale loved car rides.