Heart Problem?

[hurricanekatt]

So while I'm listing off my sick ferrets I might as well get this out too. I am beginning to suspect that Hagrid might have or be at risk to develop a heart problem. At the vet his HR was 100bpm (if I am remembering the number correctly off the top of my head), which the vet said is almost the HR of a sleeping ferret. He seemed to take it as an indication that he was relaxed and unperturbed by the exam, so I didn't think too much of it but I did make a mental note of it. Well I have noticed that Hagrid has a bit of a chronic cough. I thought at first maybe he had hairballs, but his poops seem good enough and he doesn't seem to be shedding. He is not sick, they just finished a course of antibiotics, and he is as alert and active as can be. In fact he is war dancing around my bedroom with Hazel right now. He has a good appetite too, bright eyes, no nasal discharge, etc etc.

I worry further about the fact that he is definitely Fat. Granted part of that may be one of more of: baby fat, winter weight, just switched to raw initial weight gain. But if he does indeed have a heart problem, being so big might put him at greater risk. I also have to wonder about is size. Maybe he is younger than I think, and unusually large and that is related to his heart? He also has a funny shaped head and an interesting temperament, leading me to think there may be some genetic or congenital abnormalities overall.

Thoughts on this? If he does have a heart problem, how would they diagnose that and how would/could they treat it?

[hurricanekatt]

The cough is only occasional btw, but I do hear it about once a day at least it seems, sometimes more, and often only once.

[Thérèse]

Hopefully it is just a seasonal cough and nothing more, you do not need any more medical dramas.

[Heather]

Lady "B" has had a "cough" since she came here almost 7 yrs ago, so did Attila. She still has the cough. I've never been able to quite pin it down. I would be concerned about your wee one's weight. How old is he? When you hang him out (sounds horrible) what is his shape? Where does all the weight go? Is he fat all over? Minion carries as much fat across his shoulders as he does around his middle (he's just fat ). Napoleon, Boris, Mayhem all carried their weight in their butts. They were surprisingly slender around the chest area and shoulders. When you hung them out, everything appeared to sag into their bottoms, leaving them rather pear shaped (they're all heart ferrets). It's not a conclusive test, but it is one to make you look harder at that ferret for possible heart conditions.
ciao

[Sherry]

Only problem with that is almost all kibble fed ferrets will have that pear shape.

[mustelidmusk]

adrenal issues tend to give that pear shape, age, as well as other issues.
the main thing to look for is a ferret that tends to breathe more rapidly or one that needs to rest (go flat for recovery) in the middle of play time.

A slow heart beat could be an indicator of impaired electrical transmission or possibly hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, but neither of these are as common as dilated cardiomyopathy, which tends to result in a faster heart beat (especially in earlier stages of the disease. In most cases, the heart will speed up if enough blood is not circulated unless the electrical currents are blocked.

THe cough could be an allergy to something. Fingers crossed that all this just goes away.

All your brats are stressing - you are stressing, and all this adds up to lots of stress for all. Kenai smells strong because he has had surgery, to the others know there are problems. Koda is very "put out" because he has to share your time with other brats.....getting a brother was OK because it meant that Koda benefited from Kenai as well, but these other ferrets are simply "unnecessary varmints" in Koda's eyes.

You may want to try to keep the kids separated and keep stress levels down for a while. Rescue remedy may help as well. When I brought Shaman into my crew, everyone got the "screamin' sh**s" - I thought Shaman brought some kind of "bug" with him - but it all turned out to be stress.....I CULTURED the poops on all 4 kids - no poop bugs, just opportunistic flare-ups of bacteria that are normally present.....i.e., all just stress from that "horrid little monster" that mommy brought home.