If anyone tells you it is a "cold" think twice. When people think the ferrets have colds they instead have more serious things, some of which need treatment, and some of which are responsive to antibiotics (bacterial sinus infections are responsive to antibiotics but cold are caused by rhinoviruses so are not). Ferrets get bacterial sinus infections, they get influenza (especially avian forms), they get pneumonia of several types, etc. They don't get the rhinoviruses that cause colds which is great annoyance to the pharmaceutical industry which would LIKE to study them in relation to colds AND the things that they do get but CAN'T because they simply do NOT catch rhinoviruses so "take that pharmaceutical industry" said with thumbing of the nose. See these expert vet posts: http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG4053 http://ferrethealth.org/archive/SG1618 http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG10945 http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG9530 http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG4054 http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG2137 There are other things, from canine distemper which is the type of distemper that ferrets get (We are now in the time of year when vets see the greatest percentage of these cases in pets according to a report I read just a couple of weeks ago.) to something inhaled and stuck in a sinus cavity, to an infected tooth root that is in a sinus cavity (or the infection has eaten its way in), to a sinus tumor, to fungal infections from soil (hard to treat), or more. The ferret is up to date on vaccinations, right? Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html [Posted in FML 6101]
