Dear Ferret Folks-

Ardith's story about Bizzy made me remember my Sabrina the Bat Biter in
her final year. She lost her vision and honestly, it was *barely* even
noticeable. Her eyes had gotten that same green sheen to them that an
old dog gets and I noticed that occasionally she bumped into doorposts
when cornering at speed. Her speed never varied, she never slowed down!
I am confident that she was sighted when I was first given her, but the
blindness came on I think, slowly, and she simply adjusted. Sometimes
I would find her out in the middle of a flat area...an "island' of
space, not really sure which way she wanted to go. She'd slowly turn,
sniffing, until she got some scent clue she'd follow back to the
closeness of the walls, and the edges of the counters and larger
appliances. She had that landscape firmly memorized in her mind (by
scent map, I assume) and she had the confidence to ramble all over
our apartment , both under and over furniture. And while she felt
comfortable to gallop along beside a familiar wall , whiskers in
contact with the baseboard, her days of jumping ended quite abruptly.

I remember watching her and thinking I was paranoid, Sabrina couldn't
really have gone *blind* for heaven's sake! That was a little on the
dramatic side, even for La Serenissima Sabrina. So there came the
moment when I got down on the floor with her and re-created a Three
Stooges comedy routine with her. I mimed poking my fingers in her eyes.
No reaction. I did it a few more times, faster, fast enough to make
me a little nervous. Sabrina didn't blink. She simply didn't see the
stoopit hoomin down on the floor with her being a Stooge. I tried using
a shiny silver fork, instead. She did not see the shiny silver prongs
of the fork mere millimeters away from her greenish eyes. Did I feel
completely stupid doing this? Yes. But when I flicked one of the prongs
of the fork with my thumbnail near her head she reacted very strongly,
head lifted, sniffing, and searching for the sound. I rubbed her blunt
little ears for a while and placed her near a wall. It was obviously a
known wall, she trotted away alongside it with no hesitation.

I was advised on the FML to "scent-mark" certain geographic locations
that were important navigation points for her. I wetted a paper towel
with Durkee Cooking Vanilla and spotted it on the doorposts I'd seen
her have trouble with, and as if by magic, she never misjudged their
location in space again, never knocked her shoulders against them when
making a tight turn at speed. I did NOT do this with the bathroom
doorposts. I preferred to attend to certain personal matters in the
bathroom without any more help from Sabrina than was necessary.
Obviously, I am no saint. But I did try to re-mark to doorposts to the
ferret room once a week, and she never thudded against them again.

I think the point of my reminiscence here is that it is possible for
you to have a low vision or even sightless ferret in your business,
and not even be aware of it, especially when the change in vision
happens slowly. The ferrets adapt to the change without complaint, and
in some cases without much in the way of obvious behavioral change. I
think it is a good idea to check the vision of older ferrets. Blindness
certainly doesn't slow them down much nor even apparently detract from
their enjoyment of life, but it is something that you should know about
your small companion. You can do little helpful things like the scent
marking around your house to help them navigate effortlessly.

Just a thought. And will you feel stoopit playing Three Stooges with
your ferret? Yes. But do it anyway.

Alexandra in MA

[Posted in FML 5726]