Waardenburg Syndrome ferrets

[sherrylynne]

How soon do you get the info from the xrays?

[fertsru]

OMG, thank you guys for talking about his syndrome. I got one girl from a vet's office. She was dropped off there in a duffle bad. When the vet was doing neutering on my boy, he was praising how big and healthy he was and asked if I'd adopt this little albino girl since the vet's office is not really a shelter. Well, my son wanted that girl and we ended up taking her home.
After she recovered from the initial shock, which was a year ago, she never became people friendly. I've had ferrets for four years and seen many shelters, breeders, etc. But she just never seemed right in her head. I always wrote it off that she is deaf. She continues to bite us when handled without any reason. It's not just a bite but a vicious bite with weaving her head back and forth. I can certainly handle it but it comes up when I need someone to watch my dookers. She just doesn't like people at all, doesn't like being handled, played with, touched, trimmed, treats from hands or anything. I leave her alone and she has the best life she can with my other ferrets. Another amazing thing is that she eats almost anything: potato soup, raw fish, beef, chicken jerky for dogs, cottage cheese, etc. (not all intentionally offered of course).
But this syndrome makes all sense which I never realized before. She'll stay with us and we'll love her like parents love their "special" children, but I often thought maybe I was doing something wrong. I guess it's just the way she is.

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[Heather]

I'm glad that our chatter about this has helped make sense of what can seem like a senseless problem (or at least one that doesn't seem to make any logical sense) I can remember the first time I ever read about this and when OMG...that's my Thor. He's a text book case. Then I got looking around at some of my little deafies. Not all deafies are Waardenburg and not all Waardenburg's are deafies but it sure makes things a lot clearer
ciao

[Polecatty]

Hi Fertsru, your little girl looks like a Dark Eyed White, not an Albino. Either way she is cute, and thankyou for looking after her despite her issues!

[fertsru]

Nov 14, 2010 1:20:46 GMT -5 Polecatty said:

Hi Fertsru, your little girl looks like a Dark Eyed White, not an Albino. Either way she is cute, and thank you for looking after her despite her issues!

She is albino and deaf. I am sorry if the picture is misleading. Here is another one.

It's hard to describe her odd behavior. But as many noted, "not the brightest one" seems to be the common trend. I've been around ferrets to notice it. I just never looked into researching this syndrome.

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[Heather]

A marshals albino too. I've not seen one of those in years. The red background throws the colour of the eyes off.
ciao

[sherrylynne]

She's a cute little thing. Reminds me of my Willow, though Willow's a DEW. And yes, they are very special little babies. We've finally gotten Willow where she'll give kisses, and enjoys being held for short periods of time. She still does, however bite. But it's more a "what's that?" sort of bite, rather than one of fear or anger.

[xeopse]

Lulabelle never used to bite, but now that she is coming out of her shell form the research lab, she bites a bit. It's not aggressive, but she does it when I need to pick her up or wake her - she puts her teeth on me like "Muuuuummmm... 5 more minutes, or I mean it!" and then tries to burrow away in more blankets. I know she could hurt me (Persephone does not hide this fact from me so I know how much their little sharp teeth damage) but she doesn't.

And I think the commonality between all of them is "not the brightest bulb on the tree" for sure - but good nonetheless. Mine is an outsider when it comes to other ferrets despite having lived with them forever, and she's chosen to attach herself more to the dog than anyone else. Doesn't bother me any, but it's just one more bizarre behavior to tack onto her growing list of quirks.

I hope that people reading this don't assume that their deaf ferrets are WS babies - please don't think that! Just because they're hearing-impaired doesn't mean they are WS at all. There's a lot of other symptoms that play into it - and like Sherrylynne said before, they are pretty much like Down Syndrome children. They are "special" in a lot of ways, but not just because they are deaf.

[sherrylynne]

That is certainly true. I have one deaf Waardenburg's, one hearing Waardenburg's, and one deaf one who is "normal" otherwise.

[Heather]

I couldn't agree with you more Sherrylynne. Thor isn't deaf, in fact hears very well....but he's s-p-e-c-i-a-l I don't think, though she's deaf, that Lady Natasha is a WS kid. I'm trying to get a photo of both Lady Natasha and Boris...Boris is a WS kid...that really wide forehead with the eyes to low and close is a telltale sign (but then his whole skull is wrong).
ciao

[xeopse]

Sherrylynne you just have one of everything huh? =) It's a buffet of ferrets at your house!

[sherrylynne]

Given that I have 9, pretty much Lets see, 1 silver, 1 chocolate, 1 albino, 2 DEW's, 1 champagne(sometimes!), 3 sables, two of whom have "milk toes" and 1/2 bibs

[rarnold18]

hey your house sounds like mine!!! 2 silvers, 2 DEWs, 1 champange, 1 chocolate, 3 sable!

[Heather]

Hmmm, I don't have a champagne. Sprite was a champagne until she stopped eating kibble, then she just became a lite sable. Yuri's my only silver, all the rest of the (3) decided that DEWs have more fun lol. Napoleon used to be a chocolate sable, but he's roaned out really badly this winter So, I've still got Thor who's a chocolate with a beautiful bib, and Boris who's a chocolate with a bib and little white toes on his front feet. Calypso is also a chocolate with no markings and a beautiful dark mask. Odin who's an albino. I don't know what you would call Captain Jack...he's sort of like a silver with sable tendencies lol. I think he's probably a roaned out sable. Pooka was a sable....until she got adrenal and all her fur fell out...when it came back she became a beautiful silver...she roaned too I guess. I've never had a true champagne I've had a couple of champagne coloured ferrets turned in but as soon as they became healthy they turned into sables I have at present 5 deafies of which 3 are waardenburgs and one hearing ferret with waardenburgs. I was trying to think of past ferrets whom I've had that were deafies, waardenburgs and what farm they came from. I think it was a fairly even split.
ciao

[sherrylynne]

I don't know if you'd call Athena a "true" champagne or not!
Here's her coat in the summer:



Here it is mid shed in spring:



And here it is in the winter(you can see her lupron hadn't kicked in yet):