To Kathleen Boaz:
 
>Norkie, an albino, was diagnosed with heart problems 4 months ago.  Norkie
>has a cough, irregular hearbeat, and abdominal swelling.  She is alos
>sleeping most the time.  She gets 2 1/4 tablets of encard a day as well as 1
>1/4 tablet lassix a day....  My vet says Norkie is in the last stages of the
>problem, and that it is only a matter of time.  The vet is giving fluids and
>interjection lassix, but doesn't think anything else can be done for her.
 
    Kathleen - Unfortunately the story about Norkie is a very common one.  I
recnetly lost one of my ferrets after an 8-month battle with cardiomyopathy,
and have a 4.5 year old who is on medication right now.  Unfortunately, we
have a lot of genetic predisposition for this in our American bloodlines,
and we see heart disease all the way from 1-year-olds to 7-year-olds.
 
    Enalapril and lasix are the two most commonly used drugs in heart
disease in animals.  The swollen abdomen is fluid accumulation due to the
failing heart (the plubming is backing up into the abdomen, which is known
as ascites).  The cough suggests fluid accumulation in the chest also.
 
    Your vet is probably right - Norkie does appear to be in the last stages
of this disease.  One old standby medication that would be worth at try
would be digitalis.  Talk with your vet about this - it certainly can't hurt
at this stage.
 
    For those people interested on learning more on this disease, be sure to
check out the Ferret FAQ.
 
Bruce H. Williams, DVM         Dept. of Veterinary Pathology
Chief Pathologist, AccuPath    Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
[log in to unmask]         Washington, D.C.  20306-6000
                               [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1252]