Ruffle's ascites is worse now than it had been 6 days ago when she was moved
to 1/2 tab of Lasix daily, and worse than it had been 3 days ago when she
moved up to 3/4 tab daily.  Now we are in a scenario where we have to watch
out both for the retained abdominal fluid and for post-lasix dehydration of
other areas.  It's strange to see her with her huge belly (over 13 ounces of
fluid), but loose skin and dry eyes after her doses, and to see how much
piddle she can put out.  It's all a balancing act at this point which
requires close monitoring, thus less sleep again on our parts since we are
in shifts.
 
The wonderful thing about it (That sounds strange, doesn't it?  Still, there
is one HUGE blessing.) is that even now she is pain free and getting a kick
from life.  As long as she remains without fluid in her lungs her passing
should be gentle and comfortable, just a matter of not waking at some point.
 
Given this experience and Meltdown's comfortable time with her
cardiomyopathy our advice to any ferret person with one which has
cardiomyopathy would be to not over-react when you first find out.  If a
ferret is able to avoid having fluid in the lungs the disease/disorder can
be a painless and graceful one.  A good vet will know or learn which meds
are appropriate.  In Ruffle's case that is now a combination of Lasix and
Enacard (with Proglycem for her reoccurent insulinomas), and for Meltdown
who has no ascites to date but does have ventricular bigemini when untreated
meds are a combination of Digitalis and Enacard.  (Meltdown has been
monitored for 3 minutes at a time now without one occurrence, something
which startles every vet who finds out.  This is even better than she did on
a combination of Enacard and Propranolol.  As far as anyone knows she is the
first ferret with ventricular bigemini caught in time to treat it and the
results are magnificent!)
 
We have read and heard of ferrets have 8 to 10 comfortable months with
cardiomyopathy when treatment and luck are on their sides.
 
What seem to have best helped our two sick ones (who are both older Path
Valley sterling silver mitts from the old stock) are the ferret mailing
list, great vets, meds, and careful monitoring.  How did the fml help?  We
had NEVER been through heart disease aside from a mild problem with Fritter
in the last stages of eight months with insulinoma and lympho years ago, but
we knew EXACTLY when to jump and how high BECAUSE YEARS OF READING FML
MEDICAL POSTS HAD TAUGHT US.  That meant that we were able to catch their
problems very early.  Cardiologists said Ruffle's could not even be called
cardiomyopathy at the point when we caught it, and that Meltdown was more
likely to just never wake up than never have her problem caught.  (In
Ruffle's case it is felt that if she also had not developed her other
problems and had to go through emergency major surgery just to survive that
she may have gone a year; it was that mild at first.) Because of the fml we
knew to move fast when Ruffle had her first (comparatively mild) belly
swelling which felt water-balloonish rather than like swollen ropes of
intestine, and to do the same when Meltdown had a dopey spell that did not
look like normal deep sleep of respond rapidly to honey on her gums (as an
insulinoma would have).  We called in and said "We've got an emergency and
unless you want us to try something else we don't know about we will be
there in 10 minutes."
 
Some people don't like to read medical posts.  Our advice to them is to do
so anyway because they will help you better care for your ferret, and will
provide information your vet can use.  Also, you will be able to locate
emergency information better for unusual conditions and will find emotional
support.
 
        Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 1620]