From:
tansy
Date: 2003-12-15 05:23:40 UTC
Subject: ferret with heart block dies
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <14161796.1071466806666.JavaMail.nobody@magnesium.smartgroups.com>
My beloved Phil, Mr. Congeniality, passed over the
bridge last Tuesday. He was at least 7 1/2, and had
developed severe heart block. He had been on Digoxin,
Enacard and Lasix for about 6 months for his heart
problems, and then suddenly stopped eating and became
very nauseous. When I brought him to the vet she
discovered the heart block.
My vet put him on Propantholene (compounded into a
transdermal gel) which did significantly increase his
heart rate (from about 30 to 90 after 5 days), but I
think his poor heart was just too damaged, and he just
had too many other things wrong. The worst was some
kind of pyloric problem, where he seemed to be
regurigating stomach acid (he looked like he had burns
in the back of his mouth at the opening to the
esophegus). It was very painful for him to swallow
anything, and he was extemely nauseous, and did not
want to eat or drink anything. He also must have had
insulinoma, because despite getting sub q fluids with
dextrose, he kept going into seizures because of his
sugar levels. We tried everything for his poor stomach
without much success(pepcid, Maalox, carafate,
PeptoBismal, ulcer protocol), and the last day the
ONLY thing I could coax into him were Fruit Loops.
The only positive thing of this whole terrible
experience is that he passed away peacefully in his sleep.
_