To Wayne Rothe:
 
>Our ferret is walking around this morning with one eye partially shut.
>Sometimes she has both eyes wide open and sometimes one is mostly closed.
>If she was a child, I'd say she might have an eye infection. Any ideas?
 
        There can be several things going on here....one of the most common
is an ingrown hair, or a hair that is so long that it is brushing the
cornea.  This causes some discomfort, and your vet can probably identify it
and remove it.  I often see watering in ferret eyes fo no apparent reason,
but these ferrets also have the squinty eye look.  I usually attribute it to
dusty environments.  The third most common is a bacterial infection, but you
usually see some sort of discharge, often sort of a green mucousy discharge
from the eye.
 
        Other possibilities include trauma, such as a scratch on the cornea
(these are very painful), and we ecently had a post concerning glaucoma in a
ferret's eye, which is also painful.
 
        You also have to consider partial nerve paraliysis and congenital
eyelid defects, but these are extremely uncommon.
 
If it persists or gets worse (she closes the eye entirely or shows any signs
of pain), I would take her right to the vet.  The eye is not a particularly
forgiving organ, and a little damage or neglect can ruin it forever.
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP
Dept. of Vet Path, AFIP
[log in to unmask]  OR
Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1292]