From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2008-07-03 20:52:28 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: somethings wrong with my ferret
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
I amy be able to help a little on that score, but don't know the original
paper or talk. A few years ago I heard from vets who had run into that
hypothesis, too. The thinking behind it is that under normal conditions
for many (but probably not all) ferrets there will not be a large wax
build-up which doesn't diminish on its own -- that large wax build-ups
may be more a factor of illness, parasites, age, and genetic vulnerability.
Another part of what I ran into was that since the ear canal of the ferret
makes a 90' turn cleaning might sometimes cause wax to pack-down.
Our own experience has been that we don't need ot clean ears often
except when ferrets are unwell or older, with a few individual exceptions.
We have had a few individuals in our quarter century+ with ferrets in the
family who were very prone to heavy wax deposits even with nothing
going on, and one of those individuals was also very prone to fungal
ear infections.
So, my own take is
1. that we don't need to clean the ears as often as we
did early on (every two weeks) except for certain individuals
2. when there is a heavy build-up we always check for
mites and always realize that a fungal infection might
happen (esp. secondary to mites)
3. we take into account that if it is not normal for the
individual at that age that there might be something
going on health-wise
Here is one vet article on ear cleaning for ferrets:
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?articleid=536
Actually, I see that it mentions some of what I'd heard.
There used to be an OIL based ear cleaner that I have not
run into in quite a while but would love to find again. It was
put in and then the area was rubbed. What it did was it loosened
and floated out the wax without irritating the ears the way that
alcohol based cleaners do. If there is something wrong with the
ears I'd stick to the types bought through ferret vets, though.
Here is another vet write-up which talks about just that
technique:
http://exoticpets.about.com/od/ferretcare/a/ferretgrooming_3.htm
and why to use it.
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