From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2001-08-05 18:41:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Isadora's Heart
>Took my 4 year old shelter girl Isadora into the vet
>today because it appeared there was something wrong
>with her eye. She was holding it squinted shut most of
>the afternoon. Nothing wrong with her eye but the vet
>had some concerns listening to her heart. He said it
>seems to beat regularly then stop for a few seconds,
>then start up again. So here are my questions:
>
>Could she have had this her whole life and it's no big
>deal?
>
>Could this be the start of cardiomyopathy?
>
>Do I go ahead with the $200 + ultrasound and $60 +
>EKG?
>
>She does plop down on the floor and do the flat ferret
>sigh more often than my other ferrets. I have an
>appointment to have her and Boo's blood sugar checked
>next week because I suspected they may both have the
>start of insulinoma. She has lost some weight since
>she's been here but I chalked it up to stress as she's
>eating well. She's free roam and doesn't care for the
>ferrets other than the other 3 she free roams with.
>
>Thanks for any advice.
>
>Star
Star, if there possibly is cardiomyopathy ( Ask treating vet.) then
really consider at least the ultrasound to find out. If the rhythm
differences present a health problem or if it can help in diagnosis
if an EKG is done then you've got to take that into account as well.
Finding and appropriately treating cardiomyopathy early can really
help in the amounts of quality and quantity time. When Meltdown had
ventricular bigemini (and some trigemini) we went to using Digoxin in
the med combo almost immediately at Bruce William's suggestion and
that took her from have strong enough symptoms that she could have
popped off at any point to being able to have more than a year of
mostly marvelous time left.