>We took her to the vet, and x-rays showed no large masses, lots of fat
>around her kidneys, a slightly enlarged heart, but everything was
>relatively normal.
 
Keep an eye on her heart and speak with the vet about the possibility of
doing an ultrasound of it and when to do that.  It sounds like at this
point it's NOT at a level where the vet feels there is a clear indication
of cardiomyopathy, so could be a variation and watching will be done.
Cardiomyopathy can be treated so that the time survived with it is far
longer than it would be without treatment and the quality of that time can
be so dramatically improved that it is startling to experience.  Meanwhile,
do keep this individual away from anything that is potentially damaging to
a ferret heart -- true licorice (not artificial stuff), for example, can be
very rough on a heart, but fats and cholesterol seem to make no difference
at all to ferret heart disease).  Salt has never been proven to have an
effect one way of another; can recall back when they weren't sure if it
might in the early stages and we had to make our own ferret food back
then till more was known.  DO read the heart information at
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc , esp.  the info from Bruce Williams .
Hopefully, this is will just be personal variation of the ferret and not
intermittent ascites from very early cardiomyopathy, but if you have the
information ahead of time then you will know constructive actions to take
if it's not just that.  If you are lucky then, heck, you'll have learned
something that might help you help someone else down the line, that's all.
No such thing as time wasted when it's for learning...
 
There are other possible causes of true intermittent ascites such as
liver or kidney disease.  Cardiomyopathy usually -- but not always -- is
preferable to those IF our personal experiences hold across the board.
Meltdown lived the longest of our's who had cardiomyopathy and she had
something like a year or more; a few ferrets have done better than that
with careful medical treatment adjusted over time to suit the changing
heart's needs.  They can have a decent chunk of real quality time with
cardiomyopathy if meds are used properly.
 
I am not a vet, just someone with 19 years of ferret experience behind me
(as I keep repeating ad nauseum).
 
The absolutely best things we have found for cleaning teeth at home are
Cheweasels and Foamy Fries.  They also reduce kit biting because they
reduce the pain of teething (important tip).  You can get them in a bunch
of places but we usually use The Ferret Store http://www.theferretstore.com
 
Do NOT use rawhide, pigs ears (unless you boil those till they are as
hydrated as fresh), or similar dog/cat chew things since potentially fatal
blockages can occur in ferrets.
[Posted in FML issue 3476]