From:
ferretsonly@hotmail.com
Date: 2001-11-06 00:01:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Conjestive Heart Failure
> I'm in dangerous waters here, please understand I'm not a vet
Ditto here.
> the fluid has not eased from around his heart. The lasix doesn't
> seem to be doing it's thing.
You are facing the same choice I was: up the dose beyond the "legal"
limit and/or switch to injectable OR lose the ferret due to fluid
retention or pneumonia.
> With Sunny, since the lasix wasn't working out so well even at huge
doses,
DB simply did NOT absorb oral Lasix properly (my personal opinion is
that oral Lasix is almost useless as my experience with other ferrets
has shown). He would cough and suffer from edema. In fact, DB was
gaining 120 grams per *day* (not a typo!) before I got this under
control. He probably would have been dead in a matter of days had I
kept him on the oral stuff so I switched over to injectable Lasix.
Over the period of 2 years and 8 months, Dancing Bear got app. 3,900
shots (4 -5 sub-q shots a day) at many times of the maximum
recommended dosage. About 99.99% of the time, he never even flinched
when I gave him the shot. And I wouldn't have let him suffer because
I adored him.
> Most of the books I read had top doses of lasix at 4 mg/kg two or
> three times a day. However, we went far above that, and Sunny was
> actualy getting 8 mg/kg every six hours towards the end. That's a
> ridiculous amount, but what can I say... we did what it took to
> work.
My previous vet said that Lasix is a relatively safe drug and is
a "dose to effect" drug. Since DB could not go more than a few hours
without an injection, he got injections 4 times a day (6 am, 9am,
6pm, 11pm). I would supplement his diet with a little potassium or
Nu-salt (NOT regular salt) since Lasix washes potassium out of the
body.
In order to control his edema, DB required 0.22 cc's injectable 4-5
times daily. That's 44 mg daily! Since the injectable is 5 times
stronger than oral, that is the equivalent of 4.25cc's daily of oral
lasix. I would adjust the dosage to his needs by slightly increasing
and decreasing as required but he was fairly consistent.
After 17 months on injectable lasix, I wanted to see if the oral
stuff would work any better so I switched over to alternating shots
and equivalent oral stuff. Within a couple days, he was coughing and
lethargic and had edema again. Switching him back to injectable stuff
made him his perky, playful self.
For DB, his coughing was a sign that he wasn't getting enough Lasix.
And if he was coughing, that meant his lungs were ripe for pneumonia.
So keeping his lungs clear and being very aggressive with the Lasix
allowed him to live a long and almost normal life!
Injectable Lasix is a prescription item. I got it from Valley Vet for
about $9.00 per 50 ml bottle. I used a 1 cc syringe and 25 gauge
needle (or use 28 gauge insulin needles). I got the needles and
syringes from Jeffers (the needles were 1/2 the cost of other
places). A bottle lasted him about 55 days.
BTW, DB lived for 32 months (!) while getting this huge dose of Lasix
*and* he had concurrent adrenal and insulinoma disease. He died at
the respectable age of 8.5 years! It can be done with aggressive
treatment! When DB has a "crisis" episode (like an asthmatic does), I
would give him a small dose of the injectable Lasix directly into the
rear leg muscle resulting in almost immediate relief.
I certainly don't expect any vet to endorse this but it certainly
worked for DB. My vet would just say "keep doing whatever you are
doing" since DB did so well. Good luck with Zak!
-Carla