Ferrets and cataracts
Gary James-Zemaitis
My little guy (10months) has cataract in his left eye. I was wondering if
any of you out there have had this in any of your animals and if so have
you had it removed/fixed by a vet. And if so who is the vet and how can I
get a hold of him/her. Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks.
Gary
HAPPYWT
hi!
well, i'm not a source of information unfortunately but...
my sven was a breeder. he was kept alone (as many breeding hobs are on
the farms) and with no friends. thus, he developed no social skills.
then the poor guy went blind from cataracts. i rescued him at 3 years
old. cataracts may or may not be hereditary, so they booted him out of
the farm. so he came to me blind and VERY AFRAID!!
after 6 months now, i am so happy to report that sven is a happy ferret.
i would say healthy, but he's just grown his first insulinoma. anyway, i
don't know whether or not cataract surgery is available for ferrets. sven
was too far gone by the time i got him. but even if it is, you can bet it
will be expensive.
so i'm here to tell you...if you're not able to afford expensive surgery
(as i probably wouldn't be) don't think life is over just because of
oncoming blindness. sven does go about life differently, but he is as
happy as my other kids (4 in all).
what i would do...get out the phone book. start calling. when you get a
vet on the line that is friendly and eager to help...go from there. you
will probably get a few who act like you're bothering them just by
calling. but persist!! i'm sure if surgery is available, you'll be able
to locate someone in your area to help.
best of luck to you. i feel for the little one, but trust me...blindness
is NOT the end of the world...after all, they must have a terrific sence
of smell - what with all that sniffing!!! hahaha
nanci and the fab four
sven, leia (also blind and happy!), yoda and clyde
David A. Vandenbroucke
"Gary James-Zemaitis" <Gar...@comtec-web.com> wrote:
I have had two ferrets with cataracts. One was about six months old
when he developed them and was almost blind for most of his life. The
other, a littermate of the first, developed them after about five
years.
At the time (about 10 years ago) there was no treatment. I don't know
if there is one now. However, this is not the tragedy you may think
it is. Ferrets' eyesight is poor at the best of times. A blind
ferret is not at a major disadvantage. Neddy, the one who developed
them early, lived a very happy seven years. He died of heart trouble
that was not related to the cataracts.
Mary Jane Frank
Re: Re: Ferrets and cataracts
> best of luck to you. i feel for the little one, but trust me...blindness
> is NOT the end of the world...after all, they must have a terrific sence
> of smell - what with all that sniffing!!! hahaha
Ferrets have poor eyesight to begin with, so cataracts will not diminish
their quality of life in any way. My one 7 1/2 year old has cataracts and
has no problem getting around the house or finding me when he wants a treat!
I have a friend that had a totally blind ferret (born that way) they adopted
from our shelter and once she got the layout of the house, you would never
know she was blind to watch her play and move about. In fact, this is the
ONE ferret they had (out of at least 20 over the years) that was 100% in
using the litter box. She used the same one, but never missed it a day in
her life!
Try to remember that animals don't have the same problem mentally with
handicaps that humans do. I had a ferret that had spinal cancer--he couldn't
use his hind legs at all--but he was able to pull himself across the floor
with his front paws and was just as fast as my ferrets able to use all four
of their legs! Cherokee's only problem (besides the handicap) was that he
couldn't climb into the litter box and just pooped and peed when he had to
go, so I was doing alot of cleaning up after him and changing his bedding at
least twice a day. But it was worth is having him share my life. He loved
pizza and would bounce up and down when I made some or got it delievered. I
miss him.
***Ziggy***