To those of you who have ferrets with cardiomyopathy, i have a set of symptoms that i suspect are indication cm, but i want to see if any of your experiences match what i'm seeing. If so, i'll have the ferret taken in for tests... The ferret (Path Valley) is nearly four years old, on standard mix of high-quality foods, exposed to normal daylight length and exercised regularly. * However, she *suddenly* - as in overnight - developed abdominal bloating. She went from regular ferret shape (eggplantish :) to having an extremely heavy-feeling, taut abdomen. This symptom has been fluctuating slightly in the past few weeks, but only between 'taut' (rare, ie, 2 or 3 times) and just loosely heavy, like a water balloon. My other ferrets have put on winter weight 'seemingly' overnight, but dont feel like this, and this literally happened w/in 24 hours. * Second symptom: something i have confused with the typical ferret hiccup, but is subtly different: intermittent longish (20 minutes) episodes of a soft, wet hiccup, which is usually an exhalation. It isnt a full-fledged cough, but it is noticeably present every time i take the ferret out. I'd compare it to a quick, wet throat-clearing. It's grown slowly more common in the past weeks. * Third symptom, which started about a month or two ago: *constant* snoring. It's a soft repetitive whine type of snore, kind of "hnn, hnn, hnn." Activity level is normal, food and water consumption normal, poop production voluminous and normal, but the ferret's seemed more prone to catching mild colds - the 'sore throat' symptoms of throat-clearing, swallowing, and licking. Once, when agitated, she had a fit where she pawed at the top of her mouth and salivated *lots* - but she was in the car in my lap, not normal environment. She's also had fits where she wakes herself up somehow and is agitated - a kind of yelp and she scrambles out of her hammock, which she has never done before. This usually happens when the 'sore throat' symptoms are around. Those symptoms last maybe two days, and come back every few weeks (lowered immune system, maybe, because Noodle seems to have caught it too after his accident?). Anyway, i'm suspecting adrenal or cardiomyopathy, but cm i'd want to move on quicker. She's got a bit of tail hair thinning, and last coat change, it took a *very* long time for her new coat to come in after the old one fell out - like a month, during which she had only short, mink-like, dull guard hairs. Summer of 95, she went through a bad bout of ECE, which may be relevant if anyone's noticed a correlation between increased tendency towards mild sickness and past battles with ECE. Please advise - this girl is my best-loved and first. My vet is reluctant to charge me more money and advises to wait for obvious sickness before looking for something that may be nonexistant. I'd just like to compare notes with someone before confirming to my vet that i'm way too over-protective. :) However, the vet's willing to do tests if necessary; the ferret's annual exam is coming up in January anyway, and i was going to have blood glucose/xray/adrenal panel done then (but i'm getting edgy). Melissa n' Potpie ("What, i'm sick?") ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Melissa Litwicki "Is it ... atomic?" [log in to unmask] "Yes! VERY atomic!" [Posted in FML issue 1738]