Joan at [log in to unmask] wrote:
>>As for heartworms, (I apologize if anybody's babies have had them)
>>HAS anybody had heartworms in their ferrets? I asked my Vet this...
>>and she honestly said no, she has never come across any!

and Katherine replied:
>Yep! Sure have. The next question you should ask your vet (if you
>didn't) was how many times she has tested a ferret for HWs. My bet
>is NONE.

Different areas of the nation have different rates of heartworm, too,
but the parasite has been steadily increasing the area involved, and
the early moving around of rescues dogs from Hurricane Katrina (before
heart worm testing went a long way to increasing that problem in some
states, esp. California from something i read.

The American Heartworm Society has a map of areas with heartworm in
the Downloadable Graphics in Media Resources.

http://www.heartwormsociety.org/download/incidencemap.jpg

Definitely a MUST SEE!

Take a look, too, at the life cycle graphic to see how it is spread and
know that ferrets as well as cats and dogs get it, but that because
ferret hearts are so much smaller they have a worse time of it faster
with fewer worms.

http://www.heartwormsociety.org/download/HeartwormLifeCycle.pdf

Notice in other materials that heartworms have occurred in all 50
states, but the rates differ greatly.

Here is another ferret heartworm resource:

http://www.afip.org/ferrets/htworm.html
---

Rita asked some questions:
>Do any ferrets ever recover after having these screaming seizures? Can
>they be stabilized and go on to live semi-normal lives? Are seizures a
>progression of insulinoma?

Last one, first: yes, the seizures are due to an advancing of
insulinoma. If surgery is not being tried then a person has to remember
that with insulinoma it is essential to have regular blood checks and
adjustments of meds such as Prednisolone (which often works better than
Prednisone) and Diazoxide suited to the level of disease. There are
also some things people have done with advanced insulinoma when meds
can't be increased any longer such as having sweetened drinks for the
ferret around the clock.

First question now: Yes, ferrets have recovered from screaming
seizures. It is matter of rapid response with both emergency care
and vet care, and how advanced the disease is.

Also, some ferrets develop secondary diabetes so it can't be assumed
that the problem is always insulinoma; that blood testing is absolutely
necessary to avoid doing the wrong thing. About every other year we
hear from someone whose ferret was treated for insulinoma when instead
the ferret either had diabetes of developed diabetes. Usually, the
choice to not test was the owner's but sometimes it was the vet. Since
treating for insulinoma worsens diabetes when that is instead what is
present serious organ damage and even death can happen.

Here are emergency instructions:

http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/insulinoma.htm

A must read about insulinoma:

http://www.afip.org/ferrets/PDF/insulinoma.pdf

Home testing (Don't trust the numbers often with this but trust the
direction of the numbers.)

http://www.unc.edu/%7Epjdutche/bloodsugar/

I think that the second question is already answered: it depends on the
rapidity of response, the right response, and the level of disease.
Insulinoma is progressive and eventually fatal.

What screaming seizures are: they are grande mal convulsions (which the
ferret does not feel because too much of the brain is firing at once
in grande mal convulsions for things to register). The screaming is not
from pain but from muscle contractions causing rapid large expulsions
of air.

I also recommend the archives of the FML and FHL. (See the header in
every day's FML and my sig lines for URLs.)

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 5668]