From:
Pam Sessoms
Date: 2002-11-06 15:18:49 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Retinal Atrophy Question
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <Pine.A41.4.44+UNC.0211061008140.54372-100000@login7.isis.unc.edu>
Whoops, I replied to hastily previously.
> did say she thought Big might have a problem with his legs as she'd
> noticed he walked oddly. I've observed no problems with his legs. The
> problem, I believe, is with his eyes. I think Big is blind.
Sonic walked a little strangely when blind - she cut a zigzaggy path and
also appeared to wobble just slightly. She followed her nose very
carefully, and it was pretty much always on the floor, as opposed to my
sighted ferrets who only poke their noses down occasionally unless they're
sniffing something interesting. I suppose someone could interpret the
funny wobbly, slightly side-to-side gait, with the nose always down, as a
leg problem. Might be a stretch, but I can see it.
> Now, my vet has looked at Bigs eyes and said that there are no cataracts
> and his pupils do react to light....so he does not think Big is blind.
> However, my observations of Big tell me otherwise.
Assuming you're right about the retinal degeneration, maybe he's not
completely blind yet; Sonic's eyes could still react somewhat to the
bright light from my vet's instruments early in the diagnosis, but
already, I could see that her eyes looked a bit strange in normal light.
Eventually, however, her eyes stopped reacting at all to the light used in
a vet exam. My vet also mentioned the gradually thinning appearance of
the veins in the retina as the process went along, and eventually they
were totally invisible to her.
A veterinary opthamologist could possibly take a look and see how the
retina looks, if you're interested. However, given that's it's not really
a treatable problem, and that ferrets generally do well blind, it'd be
mostly academic.
-Pam S. (not a vet, would love to read more on this topic)