With all of the discussion on blind ferrets, I wanted to seek some advice
for my 5 year old little girl, Milly Grace.  Milly HAS to be blind.  She
runs into everything - and I mean everything.  She repeatedly runs into
the door jams, the refrigerator, table legs, my ankles, her best buddy
Fee (my other ferret)... you get the point.  I have spoken to Milly's vet
about this (who is an excellent ferret vet) and he reports that her eyes
do not have cataracts or anything else physically wrong with them.  My
theory is that Milly's eyesight, which was poor to begin with, has gotten
progressively worse with age.  It almost seems worse that she wasn't born
blind because she seems to have serious problems adjusting to her
diminished sight.  She only bumps into things when she is running, which
is pretty often; otherwise, she proceeds with caution.
 
What I am concerned about is that when Milly runs into things, she often
hits her head pretty hard; sometimes, to the point where she stops and
shakes her poor little head, which seems to indicate that it really hurt
her.  Short of finding a ferret sized helmet or wrapping padding around
literally everything at her little level, is there anything I can do to
help her?  I read something general in recent posts about marking objects
with scent to help her to avoid non-movable objects and I tried to search
the archives to get more information but couldn't find anything on point.
 
I appreciate any suggestions or advice, particularly from the folks who
have found ways to help their own blind ferrets.
 
Ferret kisses and peace to all,
Melissa Sullivan
[Posted in FML issue 3566]