From:
Bruce Williams, DVM
Date: 2001-10-22 14:45:00 UTC
Subject: Re: health question
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "Vickie McKimmey" <jbferret@m...>
wrote:
>
> ...About four months ago she had him out in the yard, not knowing
the
> lawn folks had been there and had applied chemicals to the yard.
He
> had some irritation with his nose and eyes and went to the vet for
> treatment and seemed fine shortly thereafter.
>
> This past week he seemed not to be his perky self, kinda depressed,
> so into the vet for a check. A heart murmur was found.
>
> Can a ferret develop a heart murmur later in life? The vet was
quite
> surprised - never hearing it until now. Could this be a result of
> the chemicals? What else should she ask the vet to look for?
>
> I suggested a full blood workup, since everything else seemed fine,
> except the murmur.
Vickie:
Ferrets can indeed develop murmurs at any age. Heart murmurs
indicate turbulence in blood flow, and most commonly from valve
dysfunction. It can be a malformation, which is present at birth, or
it can also be a degenerative process which occurs over a lifetime.
Many geriatric ferrets have valvular deformations which cause a poor
seal, some leakage of blood back into the atrium during the
ventricular contraction, resulting in turbulence, and the murmur.
Does it have anything to do with the chemicals - probably not. Does
it indicate a heart problem that needs treatment - likely not at this
point.
My suggestions for further workup would be an echo (ultrasound) on
the heart, and a chest X-ray. Bloodwork usually doesn't show
anything that is heart related (although it may pick up other
problems.)
With kindest regards,
bruce williams, dVM