both me and the vet are stumped

Question
I have a young adult ferret (about one year of age) who has become extremely
lethargic and weak. It's not where he sleeps a lot, he sleeps all the time and
when we pick him up and put him on his feet he collapses in that spot, he
also drags himself to go to the potty and some times after he goes he just
lays
there in it. Me and my vet at first suspected him to be IBS/IBD previous and
thought it could be true this time. We put him on the regular treatments
(amoxy. pepto bismol, A/D food, rebound) but he didn't get better and the
lethargy worsened. Now he is also on Prednisone but he is still extremely
lethargic. My vet did an extensive blood panel testing all his organs, white
and red blood counts, everything and everything came back normal. It has
been a day or two and Key Largo hasn't responded at all to anything, he eats
and drinks perfectly fine when we offer it to him and has bowel movements
frequently (stool is the mucus bird-seed like associated with IBS) Key Largo
is also deaf, if that has to do with anything. I want to know what you think of
all of this.

Answer
FOLLOW-UP:  two other possibilities that come to mind are influenza (ferrets can catch the flu from their humans) and heartworm.  Heartworm is not common among ferrets, especially in northern and western states, but it is possible.

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Your ferret is way too young to be displaying symptoms like this. Could be a congenital defect or a partial blockage. Has your vet thought of referring you to a veterinary cardiologist? It's possible he has cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle) and/or a heart block. Extreme lethargy is a classic symptom of this. In seven years I've seen this one time and it was diagnosed by a veterinary cardiologist. Antibiotics completely changed his behavior within 24 hours, but that ferret was much older. What is your ferret's heart rate? You didn't mention that. Should be in the 180-220 range.

Possible anemia, but you say you've done a complete blood panel. Possible insulinoma - did he do a fasting blood glucose test?  Prednisone would address this, however; it would also address lymphoma, and your ferret is too young for these. Possible adrenal disease....this would mean exploratory surgery to make a definitive diagnosis. A partial GI blockage could be the problem. Did they perform an ultrasound of his abdomen?

I strongly recommend you search the Ferret Health List archives at http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ and that you join the Ferret Health List at http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth and post this question on their message board if you don't find something in the archives that will assist your vet to make a diagnosis. The FHL is monitored seven days a week by people with many years of experience in emergency ferret care as well as by a couple of veterinarians and vet techs.

Extreme lethargy in a ferret is quite serious and you need to move very quickly on this to get an accurate diagnosis.

Good luck,
DG