Hello all, I just had another first with my fur kids. I had a ferret go into severe congestive heart failure from prednisone. I have NO experience with any kind of heart stuff with the ferrets. I have read about it and that it can be maintained with meds. I took Giddy to the vets 3 weeks ago because he was very tired. He was older and had some health issues,also a heart murmur, but nothing that had caused any problems. His teeth were yucky ,so we got clavamox and his sugar was 71. Not to low, but lets try him on pred 1 mg once a day. After the first 2 doses he started to cough. It sounded wet to me and after the 3rd dose I decided to stop the pred. The cough got better, not gone but much better. It was hardly there at all. I went to Florida for a week as planned and left him with his other foster mom. He did fine with no pred. When I got home I decided to try the pred again. I made a vets appt. for this week, because he was due for lupron. Half an hour after the pred he filled up and started coughing. Ok, so no more pred for him. I stopped the pred and the cough got better. Yesterday we were on our way to the vets for the lupron and he coughed in the car. I didn't think too much about it, because he had coughed off and on and was always ok. When I took him out of the carrier to weigh him he flopped over on his side. He was having alot of trouble breathing and obviously his lungs were filled with fluid. We rushed him into a treatment room and gave him lasix. I held him while desperately trying to decide what to do. I finally decided that it was time to let him go. I couldn't let him suffer anymore or take a chance that he would have this happen again in the middle of the night when no one was open. ( Yes there is a 24 hour vet, but with limited ferret experience) I don't think that we could have brought him around anyway, because he was too sick. Up until he got prednisone he was fine. Has anyone ever had this happen to their ferret? Everyone I know who are my knowledge resources have never heard of it, so it must be sort of rare. I am heartbroken that my Gid suffered, but also very gateful that he decided to have a big problem while we were at the vets! Sometimes fate is amazing! Thanks so much! Laurie Austin MA mom to 24 ferrets [Posted in FML 7028]