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By Mary R. Shefferman & Eric Shefferman & Gabby, the ferret
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Title: Ferrets Going Blind
Date: June 11, 2002
By: Eric Shefferman

==> Ferrets Going Blind
    It happens more often than most people realize.

By Eric Shefferman

(No medical talk in this article, just some behavior
observations.)

Over the last few months, our oldest ferret, Trixie,
has gone blind. As is often the case with older
ferrets going blind, you have to really pay attention
in order to notice it.

Trixie still toddles around the room and she does run
into things a bit -- but she does seem to have the
layout memorized so that she can get around fine.
Years ago, our Sabrina was the same way when she went
blind. It is important to note that our Gabrielle, who
can see just fine (she has had some vision impairment
from birth, so she is accustomed to seeing as she
sees), runs around into things too. Gabby is just
young and silly.

Trixie even still leaps from one section of the
couch to the other. How she is brave enough to do
this while blind is beyond me -- but she seems to be
quite happy doing it.

Since Trixie's favorite playing spots have always
been the tubes and tunnels we have, most of her play
is the same as it always has been -- ferrets are
built to race through tunnels without being able to
see where they're going.

Dangling toys in front of Trixie still sends her
into an excited "mock attack" frenzy. I really doubt
that she is seeing anything at this point -- I think
she is just reacting to the air motion or sounds
from the dangled object.

Trixie's blindness is most noticeable when we're
giving out treats. Now she just gets her nose in the
general area of where your hand is and then moves her
head around, hoping to make contact.

I don't think that a stranger walking into the house
would be able to watch our ferrets and figure out
which one can't see. They all run around and play
quite normally, they all find the litter boxes (when
they're inclined to), they all settle down in their
favorite spots to sleep.

That's the way it often seems to be with ferrets that
go blind as they get older. They compensate so well
and are so comfortable with darkness that their
owners can often go for a very long time not even
noticing the difference.

Even though ferrets do get along very well without
their sight, you should still bring it up with your
veterinarian in case your ferret's problem is
correctable or is part of a deeper underlying problem.