Sorry, Bill, but Ulrike's address <[log in to unmask]> is bouncing
AGAIN for us and saying that the DNS is wrong -- even using "reply", but
the FML got through.  Could you either try to send this on in case it works
for you, or put it on the list if that's better for you.  I apologise.
 
[Moderator's note: It's bouncing here too, starting today.  It's enough of
a general interest post that I'll put it in the FML.  BIG]
 
Our's have had injections ONLY when the ascites gets out of control, and
then only one to get it down to a safer level before a new dosing is tried
the next day.  My understanding is that it's too hard on them to have one
large dose a day compared to smaller doses two or three times a day, but if
a vet who is used to ferrets tells you differently you know I'm not a vet.
Don't know what the right levels would be.  You're going to have to trust
your vet on that but at the same time get all the info you find to your vet
since treating ferrets is unusual in that practise.  Is there possibly
someone in Cardiff the vet can consult with?
 
You'll have to guess with the potassium.  If she's not having bouts which
your vet say could be from potassium wasting (We've seen lethargy and
fainting, but they also happen with other possible causes so your vet might
want to do a blood test for her potassium level to see if it's low to start
with.  That's what we've done.) 'Chopper gets only a few crystals of NuSalt
once a day.  She had been getting 4 before; right now we're trying 8 to see
if that seems to be a good level, but we realize it may need to be adjusted.
Like I mentioned, for some ferrets some banana is enough.
 
One of the big problems with cardiomyopathy is that some things have to be
adjusted largely on guesswork and observation, with blood tests now and then
to make sure.  It's tricky but it's all there is.  NO ONE can do that except
you, with your vet's tests and evaluations of what you have seen based on
what Angel looks and acts like.  For some things a person just has to BE
THERE.
 
A potassium sparing diuretic is done INSTEAD of the Furosemide.  The
cardiologist our vet consults with thinks that Furosemide is better for
'Chopper, but that may not be the case for Angel.  Your vet will want to
consider it, and if the other one seems better for Angel you have the name
and dose levels of one known to work in ferrets since that letter segment
is from a vet, Deborah Kemmerer, who is also a friend and who knows ferret
hearts exceedingly well.
 
I don't know what to think about what the German vet said; have no
experience with what the person is using -- haven't even heard of it.  I do
know that we've had a ferret on Furosemide for a year, and read of someone
else having one on it for something like 2 and 1/2 years in a very unusual
case in which the disease stalled for long while.  I also know that on the
FML the ferrets with cardiomyopathy which have not been treated have seemed
to last only about three months, and that's been with more discomfort and
impairment than the treated ones.  What scares us about 'Chopper is her
cardiomyopathy was silent so it wasn't found till after a lot of damage had
already happened, plus it's an unusual type so we expect her survival time
to be less than Meltie's, but maybe not less than Ruffle's since Ruffie also
had liver cysts, insulinoma, and a bunch of other things.  (Ruffle was born
with multiple deformities, intellectual "retardation", asthma, etc.  Like
mammals in general who have serious congenital intellectual impairment she
was expected to have a shorter life span than normal -- though she made it
to 6, which is longer than anyone expected, before EVERYTHING began to go
at once: multiple lesions on something like 7 different organs, cysts,
insulinoma, cardiomyopathy, etc.  -- as if her body had a timer in it and
one way or another she just wasn't going to survive past that age.
Fortunately, individuals like Ruffie are very rare among pet ferrets.  In
all these years (pre-FML, then all FML) I've read about only a handful.)
 
Sorry I can't help more, but so much of this is guesswork and observation.
[Posted in FML issue 2357]