From:
"Lin"
Date: 2003-12-13 17:53:29 UTC
Subject: RE: Any one with a ferret with heart disease
To: <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Message-ID: <002501c3c1a2$047bf0c0$2602a8c0@woh.rr.com>
My ferret Ariel (3.5 yr old spayed female, left adrenal removed 2 yrs ago) =
has a heart problem. Her symptoms were extreme lethargy; nose, ears, & gums=
would turn almost white when she was lethargic; labs showed mild anemia & =
some slightly elevated liver enzymes; & chest xray showed a heart enlargmen=
t. Her weight had also dropped from 1.4 lbs to just under one lb.
My vet's former veterinary cardiology prof did an echocardiogram w/ doppler=
studies, & an EKG. Her heart rate was measured as going up to 350bpm, w/ a=
couple of times where it spiked at 380bpm. The echo showed that she didn't=
actually have a heart enlargement, & that her heart structure, valvular fu=
nction, etc, was also normal.
Diagnosis is supraventricular tachycardia. Basically, her pacemaker is tell=
ing her heart to "beat again NOW!!", pumping more blood into the heart bef=
ore it's able to pump out the blood it just pumped in - which is why her he=
art appeared enlarged during the one chest xray - our vet just happened to =
snap the pic during a time when she had an overload volume of blood in her =
heart.
Since starting on Atenolol (sorry I can't give you the exact dose - one pil=
l, compounded into a liquid, lasts her about 4 wks; my husband is a pharmac=
ist, & he does the compounding), Ariel is once again completely healthy, w/=
more energy than she's had since she was a kit. Her labs are now normal, h=
er heart rate is normal, & her heart looks completely normal in recent xray=
s. Her weight is currently 1.5 lbs. All of this on about $6 worth of medici=
ne per month.
I would definitely get an echocardiogram (cardiac ultrasound) w/ doppler st=
udies done. Our Ariel would probably no longer be w/ us if we hadn't had th=
is done to find out what the problem was. This is an almost undocumented pr=
oblem in the literature about ferrets, & my vet is currently writing a pape=
r on her case, for submission to a veterinary medical journal.
Lin, Ariel, Oberon, & Max