Dosages really need to be fine-tuned and that happens multiple times during
cardiomyopathy.  It's very stressful.  I am wondering with the leg if he
may have thrown a clot.  If so, I am afraid that the disease might be more
advanced than you had thought.  We have seen two causes of dramatic leg
problems with cardiomyopathy: peripheral edema with very advanced disease
-- that's when the limbs are very swollen like ankles can get in some
people with circulatory disease, and thrown clots which happened once
mid-disease (if memory serves) but then in that individual happened later
more frequently.
 
Massaging the area is ESSENTIAL for helping the clot to break up.  We
PROBABLY massaged more than needed -- but she really, really liked it so
that's okay.  Basically we put her in our shirts and kept trading off so
that for about 36 or 48 hours she was being massaged the majority of the
time.  The leg came back with no damage.  Meltdown did not tolerate
aspirin, which is too bad because a 1/4 of a baby tablet every three of
four days (This is from memory and amounts or timing may be wrong.) would
have been very helpful for her, but she had an intestinal bleed-out on it,
so we never tried anything stronger either, and instead went to large doses
of Vitamin E due its ability to reduce the use of Vitamin K.  Vitamin K
aids clotting so it was something to reduce.  I think that in this time
frame if we ran into that again I'd also ask the vet about some of the
food and herbal products which are anti-coagulants such as ginko or
garlic.  This is all ONLY hypothetical, of course.  Hard to tell from your
description what you are seeing, and heart disease in them required a lot
of tuning over and over and over again, like I said.  As you already know
Steve and I aren't vets, just ferret people with long experience.  When we
have seen dipsy behavior in them it's typically been that they needed more
potassium each day (Bananas are excellent!!!!) due to the level of
Furosemide needed for the ascites.  Have NOT had a Digoxin over-dose ever
here as far as I can recall, and that's with having had three with
cardiomyopathy through the years.  There is individual variation, though,
as Carla pointed out since she had one who reacted extra strongly to
Enacard in a recent FML discussion.  She also pointed out that sometimes
there can be dangerous interactions with herbal meds, food items, and/or
standard meds, as multiple others have mentioned.  That's very true.  Some
items (but not by any means a full list so look things up carefully before
giving them) which ferrets with heart disease should NEVER, NEVER, NEVER --
Did I remember to say ***NEVER***?  -- have are licorice, caffeine,
chocolate, or anything else that causes perturbations in heart rate,
pressure, compressions, etc.  If you are giving any herbal compounds check
the labels carefully since those could cause or worsen life-threatening
problems such as thrown clots.  They could also help if they are right
ones.  We found that Co-enzyme 10 Q with Vitamins C and E was very helpful.
I have absolutely no idea if these things that are dangerous for those with
heart or other circulatory disease would be any problem in healthy ferrets,
and may not in low amounts be any problem for healthy ones given what
people have shared with ferrets without incident, but when circulatory
disease is present avoid them like the plague.
 
Had a toaster fire last night due to an item getting stuck.  A friend who
is a fireman says that toaster fires are one of the causes of larger house
fires since people often have them near or under flammable things like
fabric, paper, or overhanging cabinettes.  Anyway, we had not larger
problems so the only casualties were the odor of our home (Peeeuuuuwww!,
the toaster, and its contents).  Thought that people would like to know how
our ferrets who were out romping behaved at the time -- they hide under
furniture and would not come out!!!!!!!!  Makes me feel better that we cage
at night and during some parts of the day.  So, put your toasters away from
anything flammable, and please, let us know if there are any new ones out
there with automatic shut-offs when items don't pop.  Take fire safety and
ferret fire escape into consideration, please; they ran and hid at the
first sign of smoke not at the alarms.  Right now I figure that toasters
should try to pop and then should automatically shut off even if they don't
successfully pop -- just like they shut off when they do pop.  That CAN'T
be hard to build into them and it would be such a GREAT safety feature.
 
Sukie (who has misplaced just who here has a daughter doing a science
project and wants to say that there is an NPR program she has got to
hear:  http://www.npr.org/programs/RE/index_vanduzea.html -- not
ferret but potentially helpful for an FML member, besides, maternal
rescue and communication in a tiny insect is neat)
[Posted in FML issue 2862]