Message Number: SG13400 | New FHL Archives Search
From: rezgrrl@netzero.com
Date: 2005-04-09 18:22:58 UTC
Subject: Glaucoma? Or? Cookie followup
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <1556833.1113070978600.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>

I took Cookie in for her followup visit today (right eye had been injured and the vet thought lens damage). This is with the local dog and livestock vet. Since I last posted, Cookie's other eye had gotten bad too. I caught one of the younger males bashing her head on the floor, so I thought that eye may have been injured too. (Isolated him of course--he's not intact and has never acted like that before, but I guess she smells funny now.)
Anyway, the vet now thinks Cookie has "something systemic" as the odds of two such injuries so close together are not high, even with the bashing. So----she says maybe glaucoma, and isn't sure how good treatments are for ferrets (says they're not good for dogs). If we can't treat, we'll take the eyes out I guess. She's blind now anyway, and the eyes are bugging out. I need to keep them lubricated so they don't rupture. (!)

OK, so does anybody know about glaucoma and ferrets, or about anything else this might be? I did find a veterinary ophthamologist, but he wanted $2400 to take an eye out. (Dang! I can get 6 adrenals out for that and still have change!) So I can't really go to him, especially now that it's two eyes that need treating. I can go to the ferret vet in Albuquerque, though.

Any thoughts? She really is a healthy little thing despite being 7, and she's still eating and exploring.