I want people to be aware of a possible complication from neural crest disorders that can lead to a problem with eating. Neural crest disorders are found in panda ferrets and ferrets with blazes. Two of the most common variations being Waardenburg Syndrome and KIT. Blazes can have little to no expression whatsoever. The more white, the more irregular the white splotching, the more facial features, the more likely they have a whole syndrome that can include deafness. I'm going to welcome my partner in crime on this issue to explain the technicalities of what I'm about to present to you. In the mean time, I thought it would be best for a very straight forward and easy to understand post about a subject that I've been discussing in a genetics group. I'm going to give a quick history about how the subject came about and how it took off, so if you like, you can skip the next two entire two paragraphs and move on ... or not. A friend of acquired a new kit that presented with an interesting condition. She is a marked/striped white. Deaf. Growth retarded. With minor facial asymmetry. Dark ruby eyes. She initially presented in a serious state of small stature/failure to thrive, hacking when eating (and even on occasion without), and some very general symptoms that something was "not quite right". In the beginning the vets and this owner questioned if this was a severe allergic reaction bordering on anaphylactic reaction. Yet nothing consistently seemed be associated with the coughing spasms. Benedryl only took a good edge off (as it would any coughing for any given reason). The owner had to go through a frantic period of questioning if this was the onset of Juvenile Lymphoma, the poor thing. Even the vet considered it. But then that was ruled out. They were left at square one, and with questions about possible allergies and such. Meanwhile, I was scrambling around about genetic causes for the host of puzzling traits and symptoms. While I did that, the owner was left with nothing but supportive care. Lots of gravy for the baby, etc. She improved with that supportive care alone. Not dramatically, but quite a darn bit. So I picked up an old theory I've had about something called Leopard syndrome. This is a type of Neural Crest defect in mammals that is a distant (a very distant) family member of all the other neural crest disorders such as Waardenburg Syndrome, Piebaldism, KIT, etc.. Wording it as if it's related might be improper. Anyway, it's rare. I thought of it, because this darling baby was a marked, dark-brown striped, deaf female, small in stature, and with very mild facial asymmetry. Hmm. Leopard syndrome is characterized by all of these traits (dark stripe or dark spotting contrasting next to white). I forget what, but there were other physical issues involved as well. Well, our friendly neighborhood geneticist Brett was asked about this, and he was quite puzzled as well. He had no access to the animal as well, so that made things difficult for him to express much of an opinion. He did say that this situation didn't quite fit the leopard syndrome. That sort of felt right to me. He did express that the little girl strongly was showing one or several neural crest syndromes. That I knew. But which? How many? And were there other extenuating factors. This is the part that you should read. Being that I had a ferret affected with KIT and with some obvious symptoms of Waardenburg syndrome type III or IV (more unusual type of WS with GI problems), and being that I've received some emails over the years from people who told me about chewing, choking, and eating issues with their deaf ferrets that have strong KIT and or WS markings (asymmetrical, white splotchy ferrets that look like half blazes and half pandas) ... I started to think about that and this new little kit that I was asked about. Now, I know that with my ferret, I had generalized over from research in dogs, cats, rats, and humans that WS type III can have GI issues such as GI tracks being too small, or strictures being too tight, etc. Also that jaw formation can be different (jaws might not open quite as wide as a normal ferret's). But something this new little ferret did made me think of another possible problem. You see the owner gave her ferretone and on occasion she coughed and had trouble with that. So in other words, she had trouble with hard kibble and ferretone, but not soft food. Oh boy that was classic Dysphagia as seen in humans. That is a condition that you are born with that makes swallowing a bit dicey. Hard, dry, and/or large chunks of food are too hard to swallow. The nerves in the back of the throat can either spasm, or not have the muscle tone, or not have the coordination to work right. Some cases, even have the back of the throat (the opening) looking very small. Eating is slow. And eating means coughing, and at times even aspiration. Sometimes watery things are difficult too. So thick stuff is good (like chicken gravy). The little girl that I was thinking about, is doing great on thick, gravy like food. My ferret, did great on thick gravy as well. And never choked nor had other GI problem when on it. So this is really making me wonder. I mean if this dysphagia or even jaw thing can be an issue with these type of ferrets, lots of trouble might be saved if they are put on gravy or soft diets. Lets review. Nobody knows with any 100% certainty that ferrets themselves can inherit the severe and unusual forms of Waardenburgs syndrome. Nobody knows with any 100% certainty that ferrets are born with KIT defects. But we do know for fact they are born with some types of neural crest defects (Kit and WS are under this umbrella) as all mammals are capable of doing (it's just no scientive study has been done to id the exact conditions present ... you can't tell by a visual alone). So it's a common sense leap that all geneticists that I know of say is fairly safe to do (from basic mammal studies to ferret). Okay. Nobody knows if ferrets can have dysphagia. Okay they can... all that word means is just that they have trouble swallowing which can even happen from a tumor, but we don't know at all if they can get it from genetic defects. Its just sort of common sense that they could have nerve damage from genetic issues just like any other mammal. The biggest thing to remember though, is that I'm having a hard time... tying neural crest and dysphagia together. I see a lot of promising work and articles out there saying that one causes the other. But those articles on from the Journal of GI, etc and you have to pay or be registered to get those. What's this mean to us? If you have a ferret that is blaze, panda, or blaze/panda mix that displays this chronic sort of choking or coughing ... try a diet of Bob Churches Chicken gravy, or at least put them on turkey/chicken baby food (you can soup it up with stuff if you like) and see how it goes. See if they are more comfortable. See if they gain weight. Etc. Keep it in mind. If they get pneumonia .... boy you really might want to think about this, as aspiration is commonly caused by this condition. You guys, this is all ... you know, kickin the ideas and dirt around. But because it's something dumb, that can drastically affect a ferrets life ... it wouldn't hurt to be careful. Wolfy http://wolfysluv.jacksnet.com [Posted in FML issue 4913]