>What I DID attribute to his deafness was the fact that he loved to
>sleep in the middle of the room with no covers and not curled up. He
>would stretch out on the floor; I assume it was so he could feel the
>vibrations that were present when people walked. It was his security.
>I have had other people tell me their deaf ferrets did that, too.

Um. No, Renee. I have NEVER seen a ferret do what Rocky Bobbles did.
Not to that extent. Ever. I attribute that more to the fact that he
was... um... ::tapping my chin with my forefinger:: How do I say this
gently and tactfully? ... He was ... you see the thing about Rocky
Bobbles ... um, what you have to understand is .. well, Renee sweet
Bobbles was just a 'tard. Plain and simple! LMAO. There I said it. No
I'm serious! If ever I saw a mentally retarded ferret, it was him.
Mentally retarded kids are known to need naps. Lots of them. Small
children out grow them by school. Not the special needs kids. Even
delayed kids and sometimes autistic kids continue with those naps.
What's more, sometimes they do the passing out thing. They don't get
whiney and then need for you to tell them to go take a nap like a
normal child. For those that don't know, Bobbles would be in full wake
mode, then just collapse where ever he was in the world and pass out. I
have literally seen him walk across the floor, in a strange house, and
then just lay down and sleep where he stood. He wouldnt' even curl up,
or get comfortable. He passed out where ever he was and how ever he was
positioned. Just like ... someone else in this forum. See:
<http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8Ectmbdo1cOaA&emid=sharshar&linkid=link4>
Really, and truly with so much neurological damage, we really can't
compare "The Bobbles" with other deaf ferrets at all.

>My response: Well, the vestibular system and the auditory system are
>linked together. The vestibular system is the balance system and the
>auditory system is the hearing system. The eighth cranial nerve has two
>branches - the auditory branch and the vestibular branch. They occupy a
>very small space and sometimes a problem in one area can cause symptoms
>in the other. Because the derivation of the audio-vestibular system
>from specific embryological areas from which other body parts also
>come, it is possible to see some of the same physical problems with all
>animals (even the human ones) who have a specific genetic defect. Many
>of the syndromes that are present also have some muscular weakness. It
>may be that the ferret has a problem supporting his head because the
>muscles are weak, or it may be that the nerves are just not firing
>properly. Without appropriate testing, it is just possible to know.
>And, the truth is, we are not doing any type of genetic testing on
>ferrets - at least not diagnostically.

Show off. I knew that. I was just testing you. Yup. That's what it is.

>Yup, Rocky did that, too. BUT, he was the only deaf ferret I had who
>did that.

But somehow, Renee, it was "different". It really was. Maybe it's
because he had no control so it didn't give an accurate picture of what
was going on. But I never really saw him do the pez head thing. I've
seen him do the flopping over and looking at the world, not sure if it
was as insistent as some deaf ferrets are. What we are talking about,
is that some of them, as soon as you hold them up off the ground, they
forcefully and abruptly toss themselves back hard enough that you could
almost drop them. You can't even force them to look at you. Others
actually have a Pez Head motion that can scare the wits out of you at
first. It's like their little skulls are on a hinge on the top of their
spines. Almost ever deaf ferret that I've owned, or seen has had it.
However, like you said, I see this in ferrets that were BORN deaf. So,
like you said that is usually a secondary condition to something else.
I wonder if ferrets who get deaf later in life do the same thing. Eww,
crap. No, I mean it literally. My bird just crapped right on my pants.
Siiiiiiigh. My precious babies would never do that. Hmmf. You think
you guys know crap? Pashaw!

>Ya know, since many of these ferrets come from Marshall Farms, it
>would be interesting to see the lines from which they were descended.
>It could be that some of these animals are produced by breeding pairs
>that are perpetuating the problems. What is that commercial? You get
>your traits from your grandpa and your ma and . . .

Oh I have long said, that I am devastated, absolutely devastated over
the condition of the gene pools of American ferrets bred at any large
commercial facility. They have manipulated so many genes to get the
fancy marking and colors in so many of their ferrets, I feel like ...
I don't know, like much of the lines are "polluted" at this point even
in normal looking ferrets.

I wonder if them do NOT have such gene variants in their background
somewhere at this point? It's so sad. Because people buy the heck of
out those animals and often leave the sables and albinos in the dust
living at pet stores, it's not wonder from a business perspective
these farms keep doing it. How can one stop and survive if the others
continue ya know? It's just like with the baby ferret issue. How can
one stop if other stores are going to sell the public "cuter ickle
wickles"?

Man, I gotta really hand it to our private breeders here. I think what
they do is ain invaluable service to us. I might be wrong, but that's
how I feel. The AFA and the shows, are trying to encourage proper
breeding and healthy lines of ferrets. Would we have any left at this
point without them? I mean really. I also have to hand it to Europe
and Britain. I feel like so far they really have tried to avoid our
mistakes here as well. Sure they still breed them, but not on the mass
levels that we do. As soon as they realized the problems they slowed
down that sort of thing and as far as i know have not had the massive
explosion nationwide as we have. I hope that continues, I hope to God
it does.

[Posted in FML 5723]