Hello all,

I just had another first with my fur kids. I had a ferret go into
severe congestive heart failure from prednisone. I have NO experience
with any kind of heart stuff with the ferrets. I have read about it
and that it can be maintained with meds.

I took Giddy to the vets 3 weeks ago because he was very tired. He was
older and had some health issues,also a heart murmur, but nothing that
had caused any problems. His teeth were yucky ,so we got clavamox and
his sugar was 71. Not to low, but lets try him on pred 1 mg once a day.
After the first 2 doses he started to cough. It sounded wet to me and
after the 3rd dose I decided to stop the pred. The cough got better,
not gone but much better. It was hardly there at all. I went to Florida
for a week as planned and left him with his other foster mom. He did
fine with no pred. When I got home I decided to try the pred again. I
made a vets appt. for this week, because he was due for lupron. Half
an hour after the pred he filled up and started coughing. Ok, so no
more pred for him. I stopped the pred and the cough got better.

Yesterday we were on our way to the vets for the lupron and he coughed
in the car. I didn't think too much about it, because he had coughed
off and on and was always ok. When I took him out of the carrier to
weigh him he flopped over on his side. He was having alot of trouble
breathing and obviously his lungs were filled with fluid. We rushed him
into a treatment room and gave him lasix. I held him while desperately
trying to decide what to do. I finally decided that it was time to let
him go. I couldn't let him suffer anymore or take a chance that he
would have this happen again in the middle of the night when no one was
open. ( Yes there is a 24 hour vet, but with limited ferret experience)
I don't think that we could have brought him around anyway, because he
was too sick.

Up until he got prednisone he was fine. Has anyone ever had this happen
to their ferret? Everyone I know who are my knowledge resources have
never heard of it, so it must be sort of rare. I am heartbroken that
my Gid suffered, but also very gateful that he decided to have a big
problem while we were at the vets! Sometimes fate is amazing!

Thanks so much!

Laurie Austin
MA mom to 24 ferrets

[Posted in FML 7028]