>[1] What are Waardenburg's markings?
 
There are some WONDERFUL past posts on this in both Ferret-Genetics in
Yahoogroups, in the FML Archives at
http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html
in the FHL Archives at http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org.
Look especially for posts by Brett Middleton who is a genetics professor
(and in the FML Archives for posts of his which I carried over with his
permission in a "from FHL" post), and Leigh Whittacker who was finishing
her doctorate in genetics when she wrote her molecular genetics posts on
neural crest problems.  Those are the most accurate posts on the topic
by a very long shot that I have found in any ferret resource.  Brett
Middleton, BTW, was recently one of the speakers at the IFC Ferret
Symposium in Atlanta.
 
Okay, first off, with ferrets these marking may be WS or they may be a
different neural crest genetic variation which can cause serious medical
problems, with KIT being one option, or there may be a combination of
several types of neural crest changes causing problems in ferrets.
Further complicating it because the syndromes names reflect medical
groupings of symptoms rather than the actual genetics at play, some of
these syndromes of neural crest changes can be arrived at by more than
one route from different genetic loci (locations of the alleles --
specific genes -- involved) hence it is possible to wind up with a ferret
who is stuck with multiple doses of such mutations at once and that has a
good chance of being even worse for a ferret.  ANY neural crest disorder
can cause health concerns and those health problems do get worse than
just deafness.
 
The WS markings are head blazes, and white heads, KIT individuals are
more spotted and may also have such head markings, though it IS possible
for a ferret to have neural crest disorders and not have the markings.
It is also possible for those markings to be there but hidden if the
ferret is already white -- such as an albino or a DEW.
 
In the fetus there are early types of cells which later differentiate
into an assortment of types and migrate to an assortment of locations.
The neural crest is just such an accumulation of fetal cells which has
not yet differentiated and migrated.  When a mutations happens in such a
basic cell form it is possible for any (and sometimes many depending on
the mutation and how it expresses itself) later cells developing from it
to be messed up.
 
>[2] What is a blaze and are they always deaf?
 
It is a white stripe on the head.  No, they are not always deaf but their
offspring still may be, or the expression may be even worse or even less
but sitting there and passing along.  They really should never be bred.
The potential for causing some ferrets great suffering and a shortened
lifespan is too high.
 
>How do you tell if aferret is deaf and not just ignoring you?
 
LOL!  See this site:
http://wolfysluv.jacksnet.com/deaf.html
 
>[3] Is it possible to take a ferret's blood sugar using a human
>glucometer since theirs run similar to ours?  I have one where you can
>adjust the "stick" to light or deep.  I'm sure they wouldn't like it,
>but it wouldn't be frequent, and I am knowledgeable enough to know the
>bleeding would need to be controlled.  I personally think it may be
>better than the way the vets do it.  ( Please answer kindly - it's just
>a question.)
 
How to do it:
http://www.unc.edu/~pjdutche/bloodsugar/
and Pam Sessoms, the author of that site has more discussion of the
limits of this approach (and why at-vet testing is so important but when
and how this alternative can supplement it safely and even sometimes
reduce the number of at-vet blood tests) in http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
[Posted in FML issue 4304]