From:
Pam Sessoms
Date: 2002-02-19 20:49:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Cosequin
On Tue, 19 Feb 2002, Sirron wrote:
> <snip>
> Is there anything better than the Cosequin on the market?
Well, I can't say that it's "better" than Cosequin, but there is
Adequan. It's an injectable product that works similarly. In dogs,
sometimes animals will respond better to one than the other. We tried it
on my ferret Sonic after a long trial of Cosequin didn't do anything for
her... With Sonic, neither product worked, but we found out later that
the majority of her lameness problems were not really caused by arthritis,
so there is no reason either would have worked. :-/ I can't remember
the schedule for the Adequan shots, but I think they were once a week for
a few weeks. When we tried it, my vet called the manufacturer, and they
had not heard of it being used in ferrets at that time, but it had been
used in lots and lots of species and seems to be very safe. Sonic had no
problems with it.
It may be worth a try. With heart disease also present, it's very hard to
say if she is dragging her legs from generalized weakness or something
that the Adequan may address. It can be so hard to tell exactly what
causes what in these multi-problem ferrets. If lasix is the only drug
being used to treat her heart, it's very much worth looking at other
options (enacard, digoxin, others). Get an echocardiogram to see what is
going on if that has not been done yet, and then your vet will be able to
pick out other drugs that can help. I have heard that older ferrets can
have a round-appearing heart on x-rays but not actually have
cardiomyopathy when an echo is done to investigate further.
Keep us updated, and good luck,
-Pam S.