From:
shelbykimura@hotmail.com
Date: 2002-10-22 13:24:53 UTC
Subject: Glaucoma in Ferrets
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <8034600.1035293093515.JavaMail.root@scandium>
We recently had a pair of 8-month-old fuzzies surrendered to our rescue. They showed up on our doorstep at nearly 10:00 PM, and with an initial assessment seemed to be in excellent health and relatively well cared for. We dropped them off at their foster home, set up the supplies, and of course had a wrestling match and cuddle session with them. Although never a difficult task, this was especially not hard with this pair since the male, Kako, is a 4.4 pound snuggle bug and the female, Bracket, is a
2.5 pound kissing maniac.
A couple days after they were surrendered, the foster mom called us and informed us that Kako's eye was swollen and starting to bulge out of his head. We quickly took him to the vet and he was put on anti-inflammatory eye drops to hopefully reduce the swelling so they could get a better look into the eye in the following days. That night I went online to try and figure out what had happened, although anything I found didn't appear
to be too promising.
Fearing that the eye may rupture I took Kako back to the vet in the morning. As there was no noticeable change in the size or swelling of the eye, an appointment was booked with the local veterinary opthamologist. In the days leading up to the specialist appointment Kako must have thought he was some special ferret. Originally being surrendered due to lack of time, now he had 24 hour supervision - ferret daycare everyday when the foster parents were at work and back home each
night to lap up the love there.
We met with the specialist today and our fears were confirmed. The eye would need to be removed. Kako has a detached lens and glaucoma. The ocular pressure in the affected eye was over 40 mmHg, over double the normal level. His unaffected eye had an ocular pressure of 15 mmHg, meaning that that the affected eye is near potential rupture. He is probably in some amount of pain and discomfort so we are removing the eye immediately. I have not been able to find much literature on glaucoma in
ferrets, especially in a ferret that is as young as Kako.
Because we do not have a definitive cause for Kako's condition we are uncertain as to whether the other eye will become affected later in life. I would be interested to find out if anyone has had ferrets with congenital glaucoma, or could provide us with some more information regarding the common causes of glaucoma in ferrets.
Thank you.
Marcy Kimura
President
Ferret Rescue & Education Society
(FRES)
www.ferrets.ca
PS - Big thanks to Randy Blair who has offered her support in our quest
for answers for such a rare condition!