Dear Jeff-

I was an anthropology major in college. (Because they don't have
majors in 'natural history' anymore! Long story.) Anyway, one of the
odd things I ran across was something called 'hypervitaminosis A'.
This is a toxic overdose of vitamin A. It is acutely uncomfortable,
debilitating, and a very bad way to die. The Inuit (formerly
"esquimaux", then "eskimo", now "inuit") will tell you that you can die
from eating raw polar bear liver. They don't. The amount of vitamin A
in it will kill you dead. European Arctic explorers found out about it
the hard way! My Mom the doctor says that every now she runs into a
multi-vitamin and suppliments freak who hurts themselves with it.

I suspect you are going to have a very hard time figuring out the
proper dose of vitamin A for your dooking friend with the cataracts.
You really, really don't want to guess *wrong*, here. Me, I think it
is risky to try.

Blindness in ferrets, however, won't hurt 'em a bit. I had a ferret who
went blind from cataracts, other people on the list have, too. I don't
know if an adjusted dose of vitamin A would have helped stave it off,
but ferrets are smelling creatures. They adjust to blindness very well
with few problems. They stop jumping. They go a bit more slowly. If you
don't move things around, they carry a map of your whole house in their
head, and they don't much bump into things.

If they keep bumping into furniture or cabinets, regularly mark them
(the furniture, not the ferrets!) with a scent, like Durkee mint
extract, or an essential oil you can buy at a natural foods store.
The ferret will smell the object before they whack into it. Just put
a little dab at snout level with a cotton ball or Q-tip.

Alexandra in MA

[Posted in FML 6275]