I hope this will not offend anyone, but I was a little concerned by the
advice given to the person with the ferret that is having trouble breathing.
First off, we should never assume that we know what the problem is without
seeing a vet first.  There are many things that can cause difficulty
breathing and until the others have been ruled out, I think it is unwise to
assume anything.  Secondly, caffeine is a very dangerous thing to give any
animal, especially one as small as a ferret.  I personally don't feel that
it is ever safe to self medicate your animals unless you are 100% sure that
it is the proper treatment and more importantly, the proper dosage.  And,
last but not least, delaying a proper diagnosis can sometimes prove very
costly.  It can allow the disease or problem to get out of control and make
treatment that much harder.  Like I said, I don't want to offend anyone, but
at the same time, I don't want to hear about a poor little fuzzy dying
because it ingested too much caffeine or had other problems that were never
identified.
 
Stacia
[Posted in FML issue 2379]