To all of those who have written in and gave such strong support and sound
advice, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Here is an update for
those of you wandering about Biff.
 
I am sorry to be writing this so late, but we took Biff to the vet Friday,
Feb.  7 and he took x-rays of Biff's chest.  For those of you who don't
remember, Biff has an unidentifiable wheezing problem.  He was put on
medication two weeks ago, but it didn't stop the wheezing.  Anyway, we all
looked at the x-rays and he found no signs of asthma, nothing lodged in the
throat, nothing in the belly, nothing at all.  Biff just wheezes.  As we
looked harder, he noticed a little "white patch" on his lung, and then a
smaller one further down.  He said that it could be related somehow to the
bronchial.  That was it.  He said that if he isn't getting much worse, he
doesn't see any danger.  He said that we could always use this tube that you
stick down a dog's throat and you are able to see in the throat for a
distance.  But he isn't sure what that will show that wasn't on the x-ray.
He saw no need in doing blood work, so he didn't.  So I guess I can say that
everything is the same.  Biff just wheezes, and we are just going to treat
it like asthma, using the guidelines of a friend who had a ferret with
asthma.  There isn't much you can do if your vet and no other vets in the
vicinity no absolutely nothing about ferrets.  I just hope that when it
becomes an emergency, we will be able to count on our vet.  Don't get me
wrong, not knowing what is wrong with Biff is a big disadvantage, but at
least he is EXACTLY like all the other eight, except he wheezes.
 
Exactly what is the situation with ferrets and "the bronchial area" ?
 
Toni
[Posted in FML issue 1845]