I posted about Daisy's heart problem and her gaining weight a couple weeks
ago.  Daisy's lasix was increased to .4 twice a day.  She had an xray taken
last night and it showed that the lasix is really helping, her organs were
actually visible in this xray.  She never lost weight since she started on
the lasix in March, but she has gained four ounces in the last three weeks.
My vet thinks this might be because her injection of lupron in December is
wearing off and this is the first sign of it ... (she did loose weight
after the lupron injection in December).  This is a poor girl with both
adrenal's removed but still needed lupron and if you remember Tinder and
her problems with her weight ... Daisy's not far behind.  Daisy's heart
sounds fine to my vet and her only heart symptoms is (besides for sleeping
a lot) fluid retention in both the upper and lower body.
 
My question is .  .  .  My vet said at this point she wouldn't add any of
the additional heart medications.  I asked if they could extend her life
and she said possibly but at this point we don't know what type of
cardiomyopathy Daisy has.  I know that the only way to find this out is a
Cardiac Ultrasound.  My vet highly recommends Dr Karen Rosenthal in
Philadelphia ... but she has sent another patient there with a bird and it
ended up being a "few" hundred dollars for the ultrasound and other related
tests (few = between five and seven).  There might be places that do the
ultrasound cheaper but my vet warns me that if they aren't experienced with
ferrets, they might miss what we're looking for.  Does anyone have any
suggestions?  I really don't know if I can handle a "few" hundred for an
ultrasound.  I have 16 ferrets and 9 of them are between 5 & 8 years of
age.  If I get Daisy an ultrasound, how could I deny anybody else?  That
could get costly over the next couple years.  Don't get me wrong, I do
everything for my ferrets and I spend a lot of money doing it (I've got the
credit card bills to prove that =) but a "few" hundred dollars just to find
out what kind of medicine to be on seems a bit out there.  I'm not saying
that I won't have it done, I'm just looking for experience, advise, etc.
 
Joy
[Posted in FML issue 3084]