Howdy Y'all:
 
        I am writing to see if I can secure some good advice on a problem
my ferret is having.  Yesterday she became rather ill.  It started out as
gagging, sort of like what is expected if a hairball were present.
However, she soon had vomited rather profusely a couple of times, and spent
the rest of the night not eating or drinking, and still gagging.  also, she
seemed to be in some respiratory distress.  I wanted to take her to the vet
clinic at Cornell University, which is about a mile from my house, but we
had gotten walloped by a brutal snowstorm, so all the county roads were
closed, and the vets said they would be unable to accept any new patients.
Also, I couldn't get my car out even if I wanted to.  Fortunately I live
near a few vet students, so I took her to them and they examined her.  She
was not so bad off by then (about 7:00 pm), but she was obviously still
suffering some discomfort.
        This morning we got her up, and she attempted to eat.  However,
just trying to swallow a few pieces of food made her gag.  So, we blazed to
the emergency room at Cornell this morning and had her examined.  They took
Xrays of her and said that there did not appear to be a blockage, and they
also ran a feeding tube down her throat to see if anything that was not
showing up on the Xray films was there.  Everything looked OK from the
standpoint of blockage,and she is not as dehydrated as we feared.  We are
waiting to see what happens now.  The lead vet thought that she may have
ingested something toxic and that the effects would hopefully wear off.  We
are waiting for blood test results.
         Anyway, during the next couple of days while we are supposed to
watch her and bring her back in if she does not improve, does anyone else
have any possible causes that we might bring up to the vets?  They seemed
very good, and were very responsive to our concerns, so I am sure they
would welcome other expert opinions on possible causes of the vomiting and
repsiratory distress.
        Thanks in advance for your replies!
Dave and "the girls"
 
[Posted in FML issue 0747]