>Subject: ferret died with large, swollen abdomen
>didn't have before the trip), our 6 year old male, Roman had a hugely
>swollen abdomen... Roman had been slowing down over the past 6 months...
>to the point where... last night upon arriving home, his upper body was
>very very thin and his abdomen appeared to be full of fluid and was
>swollen many times normal size... hill for the past 6 months, we had him
>put to sleep last night.  Not an easy thing to do, but we think the right
>thing to do.
>
>For future knowledge, we would appreciate any replies which might help
>explain what might have happened to him.  A picture of him (after he died)
>can be found at: http://www.u2fdb.com/other/roman/roman.jpg
>It is somewhat hard to tell from this picture, but his abdomen was about
>4 times normal size.
 
There are several possibilities, but cardiomyopathy is the most likely.
It's terminal, but it is also treatable and with treatment the ferret has
better quality of life and increased life-span.  Info on this is readily
available in several of the references I regularly give and which can be
found in the archives, with http://www.miamiferret.org being a fine place
to start.
 
Again, cardiomyopathy is still fatal, but is very amenable to treatments
that improve quality and quantity of life.  It is not an unusual problem
for ferrets.
[Posted in FML issue 3649]