From:
Michele Doyle
Date: 2001-03-12 21:38:00 UTC
Subject: Heart problem & loss of balance
Hi All,
I need some help! Dr. Williams and anyone that could give me
some guidance would be appreciated. This is a long post.
My ferret Lil' Miss needed her shots and had dried blood in
her ear, so I took her in. The vet said the blood in her ear
was ear mites and she had scratched hard and caused it to
bleed. We started her on the mite meds and she threw up and
was just feeling down and lifeless. She went in again and
they did bloodwork - they ruled out insulinoma. They did
x-rays and determined she has an enlarged heart. So, the Dr.
put her on 1/4 encard every other day and .1 lasix everyday.
She has responded great to the meds, but is falling over like
she has a bad imbalance problem. So we went back to the vet
today and they said it might be her potassium level causing
the imbalance. She did bloodwork to check her potassium level
and found it was a normal/low. We put her on Tumlin-K once a
day and will see how she does for the next few days. They
checked her ears because I originally thought it might be an
ear infection. She concluded that it was not and that her
ears look good and she doesn't have mites either. That
baffles me too. My vet also recommended her getting checked
out for lymphoma if the Tumlin-K didn't work. I am just
shocked. Could this just be a big reaction from the loss of
potassium, or just the beginning of another problem? Please
help if you can.
Thanks,
Michele and Lil' Miss