From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2004-09-07 17:30:18 UTC
Subject: extreme polydactyly and syndactyly in kit who will be having surgery
To: Ferret-Genetics@yahoogroups.com, ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
when a little older
Message-id: <968BAD6E-00F3-11D9-B25B-000A95CD182C@mac.com>
(I have permission From Stephenie Baas to share this information in
hopes of helping others.)
I have learned from Dr. Moorman-Roest that the little ferret who looks
almost like she has extra paws on each rear foot does have polydactyly
with partial syndactyly.
From what I have read this condition can be inherited by offspring.
The history of this ferret is unknown because she was dumped and found
at a very early age, but if anyone here who is breeding runs into such
a situation culling from the breeding pool by altering or spaying makes
sense.
Polydactyly is the condition of having extra toes. These can derive
from either outer margin of the foot. Usually there is just a single
extra toe, but some individuals can have multiple ones as this kit
does. When there are too many or the foot is too altered in shape the
extra toes can interfere with locomotion or cause discomfort in some
individuals.
Syndactyly is when there is a an enveloping pocket of tissue or
extensive webbing present. I honestly don't know how often it can
cause discomfort; I'll have to read more. It has become obvious that
one of our late Scooter's deformities was syndactyly and in his case
there was discomfort due to some of his toes being folded back upon
themselves and deformed claws erupting through his pads. He required
two surgeries because the tissue retracted badly after his first one
and there was still his one worst folded toe in there causing pain.
(At first it looked like a paw which had been partially eaten by a
novice mother during grooming, and two bones were laying so flat
against each other that x-rays couldn't see this .) At times
syndactyly can reduce function.
(BTW, our late Scooter also had the extensive spotting of pronounced
Kit oncogene neural crest genetics variation markings so he had a
double whammy genetically.)
Polydactyly and syndactyly can occur together or alone.
Here are some sites on the conditions in humans to get a feeling for
the both variations. Such sites are common, possibly because
polydactyly is one of the most common developmental variations at birth
among humans, occurring about 2 in a thousand births according to one
source. I do NOT know how this is will vary in ferrets.
http://www.drgreene.com/21_357.html
http://www.hmc.psu.edu/healthinfo/pq/poly.htm
which says in part
>Polydactyly is due to errors in the process of fetal development. For
example, >syndactyly results from the failure of the programmed cell
death that normally occurs >between digits.
So, syndactyly is like a few other things discussed in the Ferret
Health List and more extensively in the Ferret-Genetics list in the
past in that a fetal characteristic is not lost and instead continued
on through to birth. When the syndactyly is partial the process of
tissue loss between the digits happened partially so when combined with
polydactyly with multiple extra toes it can look like an extra rear
foot in a ferret. (Remember that ferrets use the ankle as sort of an
extra backward folding knee on the rear leg, so most of the time they
are walking on the under surface of the toes.)
Hope this helps!