>...About four months ago she had him out in the yard, not knowing the >lawn folks had been there and had applied chemicals to the yard. He had >some irritation with his nose and eyes and went to the vet for treatment >and seemed fine shortly thereafter. > >This past week he seemed not to be his perky self, kinda depressed, so >into the vet for a check. A heart murmur was found. > >Can a ferret develop a heart murmur later in life? The vet was quite >surprised - never hearing it until now. Could this be a result of the >chemicals? What else should she ask the vet to look for? > >I suggested a full blood workup, since everything else seemed fine, >except the murmur. X: Ferrets can indeed develop murmurs at any age. Heart murmurs indicate turbulence in blood flow, and most commonly from valve dysfunction. It can be a malformation, which is present at birth, or it can also be a degenerative process which occurs over a lifetime. Many geriatric ferrets have valvular deformations which cause a poor seal, some leakage of blood back into the atrium during the ventricular contraction, resulting in turbulence, and the murmur. Does it have anything to do with the chemicals - probably not. Does it indicate a heart problem that needs treatment - likely not at this point. My suggestions for further work-up would be an echo (ultrasound) on the heart, and a chest X-ray. Bloodwork usually doesn't show anything that is heart related (although it may pick up other problems.) With kindest regards, Bruce Williams, DVM http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html [Posted in FML issue 3579]