Heart disease is one of the few common diseases afflicting ferrets. Heart disease occurs with ferrets that are at least 3 years old. Once they reach middle age, they have a risk of getting heart disease up until their last years.
Heart disease simply means heart failure. This usually happens due to various different reasons. Two of the most common heart diseases are congestive heart failure and heart failure due to heartworm parasites. We should learn a bit more about them so that we can perceive what we are dealing with when a heart-related situation arises in a pet ferret.
Congestive Heart Failure
Congestive heart failure happens when the heart muscles stop working. It becomes hard for the heart to pump and circulate the blood around the body. This is a type of heart disease that is especially difficult because ferrets may not show any signs for some time.
When the blood stops circulating throughout the body, the heart automatically gets the pressure to pump excessive blood, and because of this excessive pressure and lack of blood situation, things end up in heart failure.
We all know that any matter related to the heart is critical. But it is almost impossible for a common person to know their ferret is dealing with congestive heart failure. Therefore, if the vet says your ferret has heart-related issues, take care of them at once.
But here one important question is, what causes the heart to stop pumping blood?
Well, there are different factors. It mainly happens when the dosage of medicine gets too much for the ferret. That’s why experts compel you to contact the vet first before giving your pet any medicine, as he can recommend the right dosage.
Apart from this, when the kidney catches a disease, it affects the rest of the organs around it. This becomes a reason for congestive heart failure too.
Symptoms Of Congestive Heart Failure
- Lethargy
- Decreased appetite
- Hind body weakness
- Coughing
- Pale gums
- Troubled breathing
- Gasping
- Slow movement
These are the beginning signs of congestive heart failure. They indicate something is wrong with the heart of your ferret. If these symptoms are left untreated, they become more severe.
Because of these symptoms, the swelling happens on the body too because the blood doesn’t circulate inside the body properly. It causes the body to be immobilized and gives your ferret a lot of pain.
It can affect the organs near the heart as well and make the situation worse by the minute.
Ferrets are small creatures; the amount of pain they get is too much for them to overcome. The blockage of fluid causes immense pain in the heart and other parts of the body.
When your ferret experiences heart failure, he doesn’t want to be touched by anyone. Even a slight touch can irritate him and push him to respond aggressively.
Diagnosis Of Congestive Heart Failure
The first step of the diagnosis will most likely include checking the heartbeat with the help of a stethoscope. Next, the vet will perform several different physical examinations to see how severe the situation is.
Sometimes ferrets don’t show any weird heartbeats, even if they they do have heart disease. This makes it difficult for a vet to comprehend what the actual problem is, and sometimes the heart failure disease can be associated with some other disease too.
However, once it becomes sure that the heart disease is present then the next step includes an x-ray. The x-ray is focused on the heart. If the heart disease is present, it reveals that the heart is enlarged up to an abnormal size. When the disease is in the initial stage, x-rays sometimes don’t help. In that situation, vets take x-rays of the lungs. If lungs are filled with fluids, it is a sign that heart disease is present in your ferret’s body.
Other than that, there is an ultrasound too that determines whether heart valves are working properly or not.
Treatment Of Congestive Heart Failure
Drugs known as beta-blockers are ingested inside the ferret’s body, which stops the adrenaline from kicking in. If the adrenaline kicks in, it increases the rate of heart failure and makes the situation worse. They can use some other drugs also to expand the blood vessels to help the blood flow more smoothly without any blockage.
Heartworm Disease
Heartworm disease is sort of a parasite that is another cause of heart failure. It happens when a mosquito bites a ferret due to which a parasite enters the body and starts to reside in the heart.
A single worm near or in the heart can cause major problems and illness for the ferret. It can damage other organs too.
Symptoms Of Heartworm Disease
Heartworm disease spreads slowly. It begins with the minor signs. For example, the belly of the ferret seems a little swollen because of too many fluids in the abdomen.
Though it is an initial sign, it occurs quickly.
Some other symptoms include coughing, tiredness, lack of interest and energy, and decreased appetite which leads to sudden weight loss.
Prevention Of Heartworm Disease
If the ferret constantly attends appointments with the vet then you will be updated with their health. This helps you big time in preventing heartworm disease. Since the initial symptoms occur quickly that helps the vet in comprehending the disease quickly.
There are many drugs for this heart disease too. The vet gives them to your ferret during the monthly checkup; they keep the worms away. Some famous drugs for this disease are Ivermectin and Selamectin. They are available in both liquid form and solid pills.
Once these drugs are ingested, they act like a vaccine and compel the body of a ferret to get rid of the worm.
Diagnosis Of Heartworm Disease
Diagnosis of heartworm disease mainly depends on x-rays and ultrasounds. Blood tests are not so reliable in the diagnosis of this disease.
The ultrasound and x-ray help the vet in analyzing if there are any worms near or on the heart. They also focus on the lungs, because if the worm accidentally travels toward the lungs, it can cause a lung disease too.
Can Heartworms Be Transmitted Into Humans?
Heartworms can be transferred from one animal to another, but a human catching a heartworm disease from an animal is rare. If a mosquito bites a human then the worm usually dies before it grows large enough to form a literal disease.
So, if your pet ferret has heartworm disease, just keep him away from the other pets.