From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2007-02-16 19:36:13 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Heart disease help??
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Yes, you can diagnose dilated cardiomyopathy with x-ray alone BUT the ultrasound gives a
LOT more info that permits the medical approaches to be better designed. You really DO
need the ultrasound to have the best approach. Depending on the symptoms you may
also need an ECG/EKG. From personal experience, Digoxin given properly can make all
the difference between a projected life span of days and an actual life span of 18 months
when ventricular bigemini and trigemini are present.
For some ferrets adding Proglycem if that is not being used yet permits a reduction of
Prednisolone.
Managing heart disease and insulinoma is among the topic for which the archives can be
helpful, though there is not as much on this topic as on many other. The FHL Archives are
situated separately from the FHL so that if one has trouble the other can be gotten, and so
that all 6 years of posts from the 3 URLs we have had can be located. You can tell from
the intials on the post where we were then: YG were from our first Yahoogroups address
which another person used about a year after we moved the first time; SG were our years
in Smartgroups; YGP is our current Yahoogroups-pets URL.
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YPG1093
gives an overview of meds for hyperplastic cardiomyopathy, but you DO have to control
the insulinoma, too. Low blood sugar can itself be fatal and seizures can worsen heart
problems according to what we were told many years ago with a ferret who had both. We
risked surgery in her case and got the insulinoma tumors out as much as possible.
The importance of a diuretic:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/SG8303
Some comments about diuretics: if the dose gets high the nasal membranes will dry out
so then the ferret may refuse to eat. Give heated food to disperse more scent. Banana is a
good way to make sure that ferrets who are taking high doses of diuretics get enough
potassium to not crash.
Hopefully, some list members who successfully tackled both can comment.
I hope that Proglycem or some other approach permits decreasing the Pred some.
Now here I have a question: I have long been curious if anyone has tried turmeric for
ferrets with cardiomyopathy who are throwing clots. It can be so difficult for some of
them to get control without bleeding, though for others there are standard anticoagulants
that safely work -- a lot of individual variation there...
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