Dave wrote:
>Moose started out with a dry-heaving type cough. We had no idea what
>it could be. He was about 6.5 years old @ the time and nothing has
>changed in the room. We don't use cedar chips. We took him to the
>vet only to find out that he has an enlarged heart. I don't know how
>common this is, but he is getting the animal version of Lasix called
>Furosemide two times a day at 0.3 ml doses. I would suggest if the
>cough keeps up, have the vet look for liquid around the lungs and
>heart. The lasix helps!
Unfortunately, cardiomyopathy is a very common cause of a persistent
bad cough in ferrets who are 5 or above. To a lesser extent heart
problems of other types can help, and also to a lesser extent heart
problems can occur in younger ferrets.
The good news is that this means that there is info available.
Some places for information on treating heart problems in ferrets:
some of the vet links (not only the ones listed specifically in
relation to hearts) in
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
a past post compilation in the Files section of
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
The FHL Archives
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
and especially after dog and cat rescues from Katrina spread heart worm
much more widely in the U.S. than where it previously had been ALL
(with only a few exceptions with extreme climates) should be careful
to learn about heart worm in those sites above and in
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
There is a lot of help beyond Lasix for cardiomyopathy, BTW, for those
who don't know. I think Dave is zeroing in on that one because the
diuretic is what has stopped the cause of the coughing.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/http://ferrethealth.org/archive/http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.htmlhttp://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/http://www.ferretcongress.org/http://www.trifl.org/index.shtmlhttp://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
[Posted in FML 5649]
