To Ian Smith:
 
>...  none of the books I have read about ferrets was there mention about
>poor hearing...  Yet Mojo does not register that he has heard even sharp
>noises, like handclaps, unless he is facing you and then I suspect he is
>acknowledging the hand movement, not the sound.  He has a bad >case of ear
>mites (which I am treating) so I suspect he might have ear damage or wax
>blockage of the ear canal beyond where I can clean.  Are these possibilities?
 
    Ian - in silver, silver mitts, and other color diluted strains - ther
is a definite chance that he may be deaf.  Cells in the inner ear which are
extremely important for nervous conduction of sound are from the same lines
as cells that produce pigment.  Often, you have poor migration of these
cells during embryo development in color-diluted animals.  So, you may be
dealing witha deaf ferret.  Similar mechanisms are seen in blue-eyed white
cats and Dalmatian dogsw hich have high incidence of deafness.  Of course,
he also may just not pay much attention to you....  :)
 
    Ear mites generally do not cause any hearing problems...
 
    Also, what you read about descented ferrets have colonic prolapse late
in life is bunk....
 
Bruce H. Williams, DVM         Dept. of Veterinary Pathology
Chief Pathologist, AccuPath    Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
[log in to unmask]         Washington, D.C.  20306-6000
                               [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1248]