I'm afraid that sadly it is not news that a lot of past input has
indicated that apparently deafness substantially increases the abuse
of ferrets; through the years shelters and rehabbers have posted time
and again about this.  You'll find a number of such posts in the FML
Archives.  A similar problem can be found with some other deaf animals.
That is a good part of the reason why Wolfy went to the trouble of
creating the deaf ferrets list at
http://wolfysluv.jacksnet.com/deaf.html -- to reduce the frustration
and conflict both of these ferrets and of their human families.  She
also has gone to the trouble of helping people learn about deafness in
a past symposium.  Wolfy knows that topic well enough and has helped
so many deaf ferrets and their human families that I think that
perhaps it would pay to read what she wrote rather than an alternative
interpretation which reads into the paragraphs.  If nothing else it
would be less stressful for all.
 
While deafness is more commonly seen in ferrets whose heads show the
pigment depletion of neural crest genetic variants (which also have an
unpleasant tendency in ferrets to be seen with a possible of negative
health and longevity problems beyond deafness) there can alternatively
be other causes.
 
There is quite a lot about these variants to be found (including posts
by actual geneticists such as Brett Middleton, Silvia Pizzi, and Leigh
Whittacker) in the FML Archives, FHL Archives, and the Archives of the
Ferret-Genetics group.  In the F-G group you will also find the URLs of
an assortment of studies that wound up being found by list members.
See:
 
http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html
 and
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
 and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Genetics/
 
You can read about the KIT Oncogene which is thought to be perhaps be the
most common neural crest variant in ferrets, about Waardensburg Syndrome
which was first mentioned as a possible cause in ferrets but in more
recent years displaced thanks to input from geneticists' best guesses.
You can read about what may also happen if the variant is to cells that
form the cardiac neural crest (in an even earlier fetal stage).
 
Biaxin reaction: Brenda, I am sorry to learn that you have the potential
to go into an anaphylactic reaction with Biaxin.  What an individual is
allergic to varies among individuals but you will find that there are
people who can be killed by anything from the more commonly seen
allergens like Penicillin or Crustaceans to things that affect very few
individuals.  It is always important to recall that any med might cause
an allergic reaction, but also to know that the chance of it doing so is
very, very low.  Last year we lost Sherman to an anaphylactic reaction
to Penicillin (Amoxi) and he is so far the only ferret I offhand can
recall hearing of lost to a reaction to that med in 24 years with ferrets
and something over 20 years on assorted ferret lists (yes, pre-FML by
a matter of years, too).  Shermie was someone who had a lot of Amoxi
in his life, though, and allergies are typically to things most often
encountered so he had a lot of chances for his immune system to begin
incorrectly identifying the med as an invader.
 
Finally, on health: Steve and I have made the personal choice -- despite
losing out on one store-brand product which we have often purchased -- to
stop buying ferret supplies at stores which sell products which can be
dangerous to ferret health.  Selling such items seems too much to me --
as a co-moderator of the FHL who often has had to read of the results
such as ferrets lost to blockages -- as simply uncaring.  Certainly
businesses exist to make money, but when money comes before health I
draw the line.  There are many gray areas in life where a choice is
not clearly good or bad, but in this case a store which fails to drop
products which are definitely bad has turned itself into being part of
the problem rather than part of the solution.
 
This is an uncomfortable choice to have to make -- stopping our doing
business with a store where we are long-time customers, but I have
hopes that seeing such a trend will cause reconsideration of purchasing
choices.  In such a case we could return unless we have had time to
closely bond to an alternative store.  Just as any store has the right to
buy what and where it chooses, so do we.  So, our money is moving into
the coffers of Ferret Depot, PetSmart (and perhaps Petco if their company
vet is successful in getting some products dropped) -- with amounts
dependent on how serious those companies continue to show themselves to
be about making these changes.  It hurts to break a long-standing tie
with another store that sadly continues to carry dangerous products,
but I can not in good conscience stay up at night helping someone whose
ferret has a blockage -- frantically urging emergency surgery when the
blockage is complete -- and still put money into an establishment which
sells the very items which are killing that sick little ferret.
[Posted in FML issue 4885]