Yesterday I took my big guy, Norm, to the vet., because I noticed that he
had 2 skin tumors.  My intentions were to have some bloodwork done so that
in the near future he could have those itchy mast cells removed.  However,
on Christmas day I noticed that Norm would wake up and choke for a minute
or so.  It only happened twice that day, but my hubby said that he heard
him doing the same thing earlier that week.  Eventhough it wasn't a
frequent occurence, I was concerned about it.  I reviewed my Ferret FAQ and
I kept looking at the section on heart disease.  I mentioned that to my
vet.  yesterday, and we decided to take some x-rays to see what his heart
looked like.  Well, it turns out that the big guy has an enlarged heart.
The normal ferret heart should cover 3 ribs but Norm's is a bit past the
4th rib.  My vet.  gave him some lasix and depending on the bloodwork
results would like for Norm to see a specialist.  For those of you that
have had this similar experience, is it worth seeing a specialist?
Wouldn't he/she just be confirming the obvious?  Why not just treat Norm
with lasix and digitalis (or something similar) since we can only treat
the problem anyway?
 
Norm is my buddy and I would do anything in the world for him, so if it's
worth seeing a specialist then we will.  I guess that I just don't have too
much experience in this area and would like to hear from some of you that
have had this experience with your ferrets.  Any information would be
greatly appreciated.
 
Melanie and the gang (Gizmo, Norm, and Moser)
[Posted in FML issue 2912]