From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2004-08-30 23:15:37 UTC
Subject: Re: panda blazes age differentials
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <506123.1093907737725.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Author wrote:
> However, I can state that we have never had one with the above markings
> which had cardio problems.
You would not be likely to.
First of all it is not known if there are cardiac neural crest genetic varients in ferrets of only the neural crest genetic varients which turn on in a later stage of early fetal deveopment.
Secondly, such individuals among mammals studied usually die as fetuses, and those who don't usually die in infancy without correction.
Thirdly, it is not something like cardiomyopathy. Instead, what happens is typically the retention of fetal circulatory features, especially heart and lung vessels which are important during certain stages of fetal development but which need to be lost because they prevent things like reasonable oxygenation of blood if they are retained (and one even can wrap the heart in a bad way). (There can also be other causes for retention of such fetal vessels; in fact we have a human one year old great niece who will be having to have surgery for such a retention, and fortunately her's has been reasonably mild but she has been under special care since birth for it.)