From:
sukiec@optonline.com
Date: 2003-03-30 22:01:38 UTC
Subject: RE: Cardiomyopathy
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <1797280.1049061698094.JavaMail.root@scandium>
Well, the irreversible nature of death kind of gets noticed more when treated animals so often have a half year to a year and a half of extra life when treated. That is like 5 to 15 years for a human. Some do better than that.
Yes, not treating it also impacts on the quality of life. If there is cardiac insufficiency other organs can be damaged so the ferret may also wind up with kidney disease, or liver disease, or some other problem which could have been avoided or delayed.
If there is a lot of fluid build up then a ferret may feel like he or she is being smothered, or like there is a weight in the abdomen.
Energy will go away.
With some variants like with ventricular bigemini the ferret may faint repeatedly.
We found with one (and have since heard this in relation to others) that inability to hold weight can arise with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and that the loss stops once treated.
One thing that we learned with our first individual is that while Digoxin scares some vets, given when needed it gives a long amount of very good time.
I can't imagine not treating our's when they have cardiomyopathy; it so positively turns their lives around for a decent chunk of time.