From:
sprite@ksu.edu
Date: 2007-04-13 14:07:02 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: difficulty walking
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
This sounds like it might be injury related, a fall, stepped on, stuck
between something. Certain injuries can affect the heart. Sometimes
when trying to diagnose one might get focused on one aspect, such as a
specific symptom, instead of the entire picture.
Has an xray or ultrasound been done to look for broken bones such as
rib or tissue damage (low percentage to find but worth a try)?
Thoracic cartilage/muscle tears can cause chest wall inflammation which
can compress bloodflow, nerves, and restrict lung expansion. Spinal
injuries can too. Inflammation that restricts blood flow to the heart
can cause abnormal heart beats, faster, slower, PVC's, etc.
Since the metacam seems to help a bit for a short time you may want to
talk to your vet to find out if prednisilone or dexamethasone might be
more helpful. A different anti-inflammatory may work better for him if
his symptoms are caused by inflammation. We've used pred or
dexamethasone for minor muscle injuries with positive results.
If this is an injury and his muscles are tightening you may want to ask
the vet if there is something that will relax his muscles. I've used
Natural Calm (magnesium citrate) myself and for me and those I've
recommended it to it has relaxed muscles. I talked to our vet about
using it in the ferrets, specifically for the calming factor, and he
said the dosage would need to be very low because too much will cause
diarrhea.
Just a few thoughts to share.
tle
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