Middle aged ferrets can develop heart problems.
This is usually cardiomyopathy.
How can you recognize this problem and what can you do about it? One of our little fellows, Mimzy, started acting very lethargic when he was about three years old.
Now, it's not unusual for a ferret to lie flat on the floor and watch the world around him.
However, after a short period of time, the weasel usually pounces on something.
It is a behavior that is reminiscent of a kitten playing.
Well, Mimzy would lie on the floor and stay like that for a long time.
And, instead of getting up and pouncing on something, he'd slowly get up and walk around.
Other than this lethargy, Mimzy seemed okay.
I took him in for his annual examination and the doctor hooked him up and checked out his heart.
The first vet said that he has an "irregularly irregular heartbeat.
" I put him up to my ear and heard his heart, and indeed it was irregularly irregular.
The vet ended up saying that Mimzy had a heart problem, but their ECE machine wasn't good enough.
He recommended that I take my little friend to a heart specialist.
We spent about $350 with the specialist and received a very specific diagnosis of when Mimzy's heart had problems, and a nice little graph.
We could either ignore the problem, consider a pacemaker, or spend a bunch more money on an ultrasound to see if medicine would help him.
As it turned out, we ended up ignoring Mimzy's heart issue because he developed a very aggressive tumor around the same time.
The tumor took precedence.
What should you watch for in your ferret? 1.
Extreme lethargy 2.
Stopping play in the middle of play and collapsing 3.
Shortness of breath 4.
Bloating 5.
A lot of coughing What can you do to help your ferret? Ferret heart disease is usually related to a thickening or a thinning of the heart.
This is an incurable disease, so there's not a whole lot you can do.
The goal then becomes to make your little friend comfortable.
If I had to go through Mimzy's situation again, I wouldn't take him to the specialist for the nifty scan.
While the scan was cool, it didn't lead to a treatment for my ferret, and that money could have been used to help other ferrets.
Can you prevent this disease? The answer to this is very similar as it is with humans.
Vets think heart problems are genetic, but a bad diet might make the problem more likely to occur.