Hi, I am looking for any advice/resources regarding respiratory problems
in ferrets.  I have a three year old male, Luke, that recently underwent
emergency surgery for bladder blockage.  Apparently he suffers from a rare
condition, struvite urolithiasis, which causes him to develop a sandy type
sludge in his bladder.  His prostate is normal and during surgery my vet
discovered that he also suffered from bilateral adrenal tumors.  She
removed one tumor, that is all time would allow because it took a very long
time to clear the blockage in his bladder.  He has not shown any external
signs of adrenal problems so she does not plan on performing another
surgery until his does show signs of hair loss.
 
The respiratory problem has developed since the surgery.  He has been
taking Methigel, a methionine supplement, to help acidify his urine and
prevent the sludge, ( a triple phosphate ) from developing.  About a week
after surgery he came home.  Within a few days he developed a terrible rash
followed by very raspy breathing.  You can literally hear the fluid in his
lungs.  Using Dex, Lasix, and prednisolone we cleared up the rash and it
has not returned.  However, the raspy breathing persists.  Luke has had a
chest x-ray, which appears normal with very little fluid apparent, two
blood tests about three weeks apart, both were normal with no signs of an
elevated white blood cell count.  His heart worm test is negative.  An
ultrasound of his heart showed no irregularities, his heart is within
normal size with no apparent abnormalities.  Today, while drawing blood,
Luke stopped breathing and turned blue, but was fine after about 30 seconds
acting as if nothing had happened.  He is scheduled for a second chest
x-ray tomorrow.  At this point my vet is calling other vets and desperately
searching the net for help.
 
Note: stopping all meds, giving only one at a time, give a combo of lasix &
pred., or stopping the methigel while still on other meds, as well as give
only methigel has not had any significant affect on the raspy breathing.
 
If anyone has every seen or heard of anything like this, please e:mail me
at [log in to unmask]
 
I apologize for the length of this post but I wanted to give everyone all
the history so as to receive the best info available.  Thank you for your
time and understanding.
 
Hugs and kisses to the many ferrets out there with happy homes and those
who are still looking.
 
Bravo to the many humans who are lucky enough to share their lives with
these wonderous creatures.
 
Melinda Hayes - and the 7 woobies ( Luke + his six brothers who anxiously
await his return home.)
[Posted in FML issue 2706]