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Post by beautifuldreamer on Sept 12, 2008 23:54:40 GMT -5
I was curious if anyone on here has ever dealt with heart disease in a holistic way? Last month, my vet did some routine x-rays on my ferrets and noticed one of them, Dodger, had an enlarged heart. I was kind of surprised because he acts fine - no decrease in activity level, no labored breathing, or any of the other signs associated with heart disease. She thought maybe it could be the result of an infection, so he had re-check the other day. His heart is still slightly enlarged. She can't tell me exactly what the problem is without an ultrasound, which she doesn't do, so she's going to give me a referral for someone that does ultrasounds of the heart on ferrets. Unfortunately, there aren't many of those around and the nearest one is at least a couple hours away, so it's not something I'm going to be able to do right away. My vet is very much into holistic treatment (flower essences, herbs, and cold laser therapy are things she's used on my ferrets, all with good results), so she gave me an herbal mixture for Dodger to help with his heart function. She's very much against using chemicals unless absolutely necessary and she told me there have been many cases where heart disease is discovered in ferrets, it's treated with one of the common meds on the market for it, and it ends up producing toxic results. Anyway, so I was just wondering, have any of you dealt with heart disease in ferrets? If so, what kind of heart disease was it, how did you go about treating it (holistic or not), and what kind of results did you get from the treatment (how old did they live to be, if it was a non-holistic treatment were there any bad reactions to it, etc.)? Anything you can tell me would be much appreciated. Thanks! ~Jessica
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Post by mustelidmusk on Sept 13, 2008 11:03:27 GMT -5
There are two types of cardiomyopathy: dilated, and hypertrophic.
Your ferret has dillated cardiomyopathy, which is an enlarged heart ( this is the common form of the disease)
The cause of cardiomyopathy in ferrets is undetermined. In cats, cardiomayopathy can be caused by a taurine-deficient diet When taurine is provided, the cardiomyopathy improves in cats. It is assumed that ferrets require taurine because cats require it in their diet. However, unlike cats, ferrets with cardiomyopathy do NOT improve when additional taurine is added to the diet. It is unknown whether or not taurine supplements will prevent further progression of th diseases in ferrets.
Taurine is easy to add to the diet - heart meats contain a lot of taurine. Lamb s high in taurine. Dark poultry contains taurine. So do eggs and fish
Taurine does deteriorate in frozen meats. There's a post about taurine (I think it's "stickied" ) that talks about this along with supplements.
I would not add any supplements without checking with your vet first.
The heart meds that I've seen used for cardiomyopathy in ferrets include the following:
* enacard (enalapril) dilates blood vessels which improves blood flow. * digoxin - increases the rength od the heart beat. *a diuretic ( such as lasix) maybe given as well (reduces blood pressure)
Side effetcs I've noticed from tratmen wth additional medicine is increased thrist.
Most ferrets are diagnosed then the owner notices that the ferret tires easily, or he feeret starts coughing, especially when playing hard. In genral, the medical treatments are effective. A ferret may fo or a coule of happy years on the meds. A lot of how lng a ferret ill ive with cariomyopathy depend on how early the problem is detected a well as the individual ferret's -some cases progress more quickly than others.
-jennifer
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Post by Heather on Sept 13, 2008 11:25:56 GMT -5
My Mayhem had cardio myopathy. The xrays showed dilated. We used allopathic meds with him and he managed to live for another 18 months. Eventually, the lasix no longer could get rid of the building up of fluids and he could no longer move around. He was drowning. He had suffered a stroke about 8 months prior to his diagnosis and I've since learned that the disease does have a tendency to throw thrombosis (blood clots). We had managed to get him recovered from the stroke when we noticed his increased girth (not a healthy fat either, he was rather like handling a half full hot water bottle) and a mild cough. I have little Nicodemus who is presently exibiting the same type of symptoms and I'm treating him with a herbal remedy. He's not been on it long enough to see if it's actually doing anything. It does seem to help get rid of the fluids and he's been much more active and not coughing near as much...so I suppose I could say it's working at least for now. In this case I will eventually start using allopathic meds but for now I'm using this and some homoepathics to increase his immune system. Sorry, I couldn't be of more help. ciao
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