Sevie had a check up this morning with her primary vet, Joe Martins of
the Bellemead Animal Hospital, NJ.  (Joe used to be at the Basking Ridge
AH.)  Those who remember know that Sev has had Complete A/V Heart Node
Block for 5 months now.  Her reduced heart rate is now in the mid to high
50s range, and she looks like she is taking some kidney damage from it.
If she overdoes it when she plays she pays for it for one to three days
and during those times she also has poor rear end and bowel control.
Needing soft food due to her nose and (returned) mouth sore also makes
bowel control harder at those times.  The Carafate helps with her sores
and she enjoys the pediatric liquid form so she takes it like a treat.
Too bad that not all of her multiple meds feel that way to her despite
compounding.  What we do know is that -- for Sevie at least -- even Level
3 (Complete) A/V Heart Node Block is treatable for a good long spell
(compared to dying right away) and that she manages this reasonably well
on a rate even this low.
 
We have been told that her heart rate and her decent level of health are
not consistent with each other.  She doesn't have long, but she is far
better than one would expect with some her vitals -- very conflicting
vitals.  We're not complaining; she was expected to be dead 5 months ago.
Her vet and consulting vets are doing things right!
 
We found out that the pet pacemaker that the guys were excited about
working on needs to be dropped for at least a few years.  We were
informed by veterinary cardiologists at a major research institution that
there is a 4 figure sum per pacemaker that has to paid to the holders of
the patents for anything of this sort.  The patent is very tight and very
encompassing, and they do take anyone trying anything at all similar to
court.  That's come up before with ones for critters and is why recycled
human ones are usually used (but for ferrets who are smaller than large
males it would likely have to instead be the new smaller ones often so
that would be non-recycled).  We already knew that Sevie isn't a
pacemaker candidate for other medical reasons, but figured that this data
may interest others.  When the patent ends I expect things might change
unless there turns out to be some way to extend it.
 
Pamela, although some of the listings need updating (as for our vet here
in NJ) here are ways to find vets:
 
Critical References list at http://www.ferretcongress.org/
 
http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/ferrethealth/ReferenceShelf/FerretVets.htm
 
http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/ferrethealth/ReferenceShelf/shelter.txt
 
http://www.quincyweb.net/quincy/vet.html
 
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/vets.htm
 
http://www.ferretcentral.org/for-others/db-vets.html
 
Swollen nodes can be an infection but can also be lymphoma/lymphosarcoma.
The only way to know for sure is to do a biopsy since despite a promising
hypothesis it turned out that blood tests aren't diagnostic for this (not
everyone including not all vets know yet that the blood test approach is
not diagnostic though it is at times suggestive).  Treatment depends on
what the vet finds, if the vet feels that a biopsy makes sense now, etc.
The assorted treatments for some types of infection and for lympho
differ, though.
[Posted in FML issue 3974]