>How do you know if a ferret is deaf??  A while back, someone in a ferret
>chat mentioned that Sosha might be deaf, thats why her and the others dont
>get along.  Well, since then I've been watching her.  She doesn't really
>respond to noises like the others do.
 
That is a good starting point, we suspected Phanos was deaf because he never
responded to his name, and he would pop ballons on purpose and never be
startled by the noise, even when the cat knew he was going to do it she
freacked.
 
> But how do I know for sure?  ...
 
It is most probably not your imagination, we have figured out a little test
for checking a ferrets hearing, it's based on the basic screening test we
use on infants to check their hearing.  You need a second person for this.
You start playing with the ferret and have someone else out of sight of the
ferret (usually at the side or behind the ferret ) begin to blow a loud
annoying whistle, or make an unusual sound.  If the other animals are
distrurbed by this sound you know it will work.  While you play with the
ferret have the other person carefully go closer continuing to make the
sound.  The other person has to make sure not to move too fast, the
vibrations from the floor can alert the ferret.  Thats how ours responds to
us in the room.  The other person continues to approach slowly and out of
sight while you keep the ferret entertained with play.  Any hearing ferret
is bound to look at least to check out the sound.  We were able to approach
Phanos right to the ear, blowing the whistle right over his ear and he still
didn't seem effected by the whistle, and ignored it to play with me.  That
is one deaf ferret.
 
WE now use sign on Phanos, and he responds very well, he recognizes his
name, we flash a light around the floor to call him out from places and he
comes.  We also bang on the floor beside th cage to alert him we are trying
to get his attention.  You may find that the ferret resonds well to this.  I
would consider that another sign of deafness, because our hearing ferrets
couldn't care less about these "signs" they just respond when called like
anybody else.
[Posted in FML issue 1803]