Hello,
 
I recently wrote to the FHL and FML to tell of my ferret Taz's seemingly
miraculous recovery from 3rd degree AV node block.  I say seemingly
miraculous because everyone that I talked to said that it pretty much
never happened, and I got no response from any vets on the FHL, so I would
assume no one on here had any idea either.  Anyway, I was listening to
Taz's heart tonight, and it sounded like it did the Thursday and Friday
after I ended up doing CPR on him, it is cycling between single and double
beats, averaging about 100bpm.  I am going to try to get him in for
another ECG tomorrow, and I would like to get him back on an antibiotic.
 
Again, does anyone have any ideas as to what could be causing this?  If
it was by chance caused by some form of endocarditis, and the Clavumox
corrected it the first time, is it possible that because he was only on
the Clavumox for two weeks, and I stopped it right as his heart was
starting to speed up, that the infection could have returned, if that was
it?  Another suggestion to me was lymphoma that could be moving around,
has anyone heard of or had any experience with that in the heart?  He is
still on 3mg of prednisone a day, but nothing else.
 
This is getting frustrating, too many ups and downs, with no reasons or
solutions.  Taz was doing so well this past week and a half, he had more
energy, and was up and around more.  But I don't want to go ahead with
pacemaker surgery if this is something that can be corrected medically,
or something that would cause other problems anyway (like lymphoma).  If
anyone has any ideas, one way or the other, please let me know.
 
Thank you,
Shelley Knudsen
Class of 2004  KSU Veterinary College
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http://www.tcgcs.com/~ferrets
785-565-9041  cel402-984-4217
 
"There ain't no limit in this life to how far you can get,
 but if you're going all the way, you gotta break a sweat."
  - Chad Brock
[Posted in FML issue 3594]