>...About four months ago she had him out in the yard, not knowing the
>lawn folks had been there and had applied chemicals to the yard.  He had
>some irritation with his nose and eyes and went to the vet for treatment
>and seemed fine shortly thereafter.
>
>This past week he seemed not to be his perky self, kinda depressed, so
>into the vet for a check.  A heart murmur was found.
>
>Can a ferret develop a heart murmur later in life?  The vet was quite
>surprised - never hearing it until now.  Could this be a result of the
>chemicals?  What else should she ask the vet to look for?
>
>I suggested a full blood workup, since everything else seemed fine,
>except the murmur.
 
X:
 
Ferrets can indeed develop murmurs at any age.  Heart murmurs indicate
turbulence in blood flow, and most commonly from valve dysfunction.  It
can be a malformation, which is present at birth, or it can also be a
degenerative process which occurs over a lifetime.  Many geriatric ferrets
have valvular deformations which cause a poor seal, some leakage of blood
back into the atrium during the ventricular contraction, resulting in
turbulence, and the murmur.
 
Does it have anything to do with the chemicals - probably not.  Does it
indicate a heart problem that needs treatment - likely not at this point.
 
My suggestions for further work-up would be an echo (ultrasound) on the
heart, and a chest X-ray.  Bloodwork usually doesn't show anything that
is heart related (although it may pick up other problems.)
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list
 
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
[Posted in FML issue 3579]