To those of you who have ferrets with cardiomyopathy, i have a set of
symptoms that i suspect are indication cm, but i want to see if any of your
experiences match what i'm seeing.  If so, i'll have the ferret taken in for
tests...
 
The ferret (Path Valley) is nearly four years old, on standard mix of
high-quality foods, exposed to normal daylight length and exercised
regularly.
 
* However, she *suddenly* - as in overnight - developed abdominal bloating.
She went from regular ferret shape (eggplantish :) to having an extremely
heavy-feeling, taut abdomen.  This symptom has been fluctuating slightly in
the past few weeks, but only between 'taut' (rare, ie, 2 or 3 times) and
just loosely heavy, like a water balloon.  My other ferrets have put on
winter weight 'seemingly' overnight, but dont feel like this, and this
literally happened w/in 24 hours.
 
* Second symptom: something i have confused with the typical ferret hiccup,
but is subtly different: intermittent longish (20 minutes) episodes of a
soft, wet hiccup, which is usually an exhalation.  It isnt a full-fledged
cough, but it is noticeably present every time i take the ferret out.  I'd
compare it to a quick, wet throat-clearing.  It's grown slowly more common
in the past weeks.
 
* Third symptom, which started about a month or two ago: *constant* snoring.
It's a soft repetitive whine type of snore, kind of "hnn, hnn, hnn."
 
Activity level is normal, food and water consumption normal, poop production
voluminous and normal, but the ferret's seemed more prone to catching mild
colds - the 'sore throat' symptoms of throat-clearing, swallowing, and
licking.  Once, when agitated, she had a fit where she pawed at the top of
her mouth and salivated *lots* - but she was in the car in my lap, not
normal environment.  She's also had fits where she wakes herself up somehow
and is agitated - a kind of yelp and she scrambles out of her hammock, which
she has never done before.  This usually happens when the 'sore throat'
symptoms are around.  Those symptoms last maybe two days, and come back
every few weeks (lowered immune system, maybe, because Noodle seems to have
caught it too after his accident?).
 
Anyway, i'm suspecting adrenal or cardiomyopathy, but cm i'd want to move
on quicker. She's got a bit of tail hair thinning, and last coat change,
it took a *very* long time for her new coat to come in after the old one
fell out - like a month, during which she had only short, mink-like, dull
guard hairs. Summer of 95, she went through a bad bout of ECE, which may
be relevant if anyone's noticed a correlation between increased tendency
towards mild sickness and past battles with ECE.
 
Please advise - this girl is my best-loved and first. My vet is reluctant
to charge me more money and advises to wait for obvious sickness before
looking for something that may be nonexistant. I'd just like to compare
notes with someone before confirming to my vet that i'm way too
over-protective. :) However, the vet's willing to do tests if necessary;
the ferret's annual exam is coming up in January anyway, and i was going
to have blood glucose/xray/adrenal panel done then (but i'm getting edgy).
 
Melissa n' Potpie ("What, i'm sick?")
 
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      Melissa Litwicki                              "Is it ... atomic?"
      [log in to unmask]                             "Yes! VERY atomic!"
[Posted in FML issue 1738]