In May98, my ferret, Norman, began having problems with his left eye.  It
appeared cloudy and larger than normal, so I took him to the vet.  The vet.
said that he had uveitis, which is inflammation of the iris, ciliary body,
and choroid, so Normie and I were sent home with Blephamide (steroid for
reducing swelling) and Triple Antibiotic drops.  The vet.  says that this
happens when the eyeball has been hit pretty hard against something.  As I
put drops in his eye every day his eyeball began to clear up within a week
or so.  Although it was still a bit bigger than the right eye, the
cloudiness went away.  I was told to stop the antibiotics after about 2
weeks and within a couple of days I noticed that his eyeball was getting
cloudy again and it looked like a layer of the tissue was coming off.
Hmmmm.  I started to put antibiotics in his eyeball again and it cleared up
once again.  Normie and I have been making periodic visits to the vet., and
we have checked his eyes for glaucoma.  The pressure in his eyeball has been
fine.  I am still putting both steroid and antibiotic in his left eye, but I
feel that if I stop the drops his eyeball will return to it's normal huge,
cloudy state.  It will and it has more than once.  Normie is the kind of
ferret that really enjoys the outdoors and plays really hard in and outside.
He occasionally hits his left eye on things which doesn't help it out at
all.  Has anyone ever had a ferret with this type of eye injury?  Any info.
on this type of injury and ways to cure it would be wonderful.
 
Thanks,
 
Melanie and the gang (Giz, Norm, and Moser)
[Posted in FML issue 2383]