From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2004-01-09 02:55:21 UTC
Subject: Re: Cardiomyopathy and stroke
To: Caitlyn Martin <caitlyn@mizuhoradio.com>, ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-Id: <43F7D7B7-424F-11D8-8E50-000A95CD182C@mac.com>
Hi, Caitlyn, having had two with thromboses thrown to the brain and
elsewhere ( one from cardiomyopathy and one from kidney disease) I can
tell you that from what Dr. Bruce Williams has told me they are
technically not strokes, but ARE thromboses.
Anyway, there are three approaches we have run into.
ALL involve finding the root cause and treating that. For instance if
the cardiomyopathy also involves something like the ventricular
bigemini Meltdown had then controlling the rhythm problem is important.
In her case Digoxin was incredible and controlled her for over a year
when nothing else worked. If there is a problem with wash-back or with
high blood pressure then the approaches will be different. A vet
cardiologist will be important here. The ones we've been happy with
personally are mentioned in the write-up on A/V Heart Node Block in the
Files section in the Ferret Health List in Smartgroups.
Besides controlling rhythm we've had anticoagulants tried, but didn't
have great luck with those because the one ferret that was tried on
began to bleed out. There are ferrets who are more tolerant of such
meds, though, so baby aspirin in small doses, etc. may be things to
discuss with the consulting vet cardiologist.
The ferret with kidney problems who threw a clot to his brain was
actually comatose but he made it through with only minor neurological
damage to one foot, and nothing was done specifically about thrown
clots in his case. So, the third approach we have run into was "treat
the primary disease but do nothing specifically for the thrown clots".
Again, I REALLY think that this is one for a vet cardiologist.