> His activity level is somewhat lower.  But that is not all the problem.
>Tobi started to cry at night.  It sound like a complaining heeeeemmmmmm.  I
> also noticed that even though Tobi is skinnier around the waist...
 
This sounds like what I experienced a few years back with Peanut.  She had
cardiomyopathy.  It's a heart disease.  The lungs fill with fluid and the
complaining at night is the ferret gasping for air.  I believe Peanut was
sick for months but I couldn't really put my finger on it.  Her activity
level went down and she just slept all the time.  I did hear the
"complaining at night" also.
 
She eventually got sick and I took her to the vet and they thought she had
pneumonia (spelling???).  I started her on antibiotics and the next day she
was noticably worse!  She was having trouble breathing, she would hold her
head in the air and gasp.  She would not put her head down and sleep.  This
went on for hours and I noticed she was not eating either.  I took her back
to the vet and they diagnosed cardiomyopathy right away.  They gave her a
very short time to live....days, a week, maybe a month.  I could have taken
her to another specialist that could maybe extend her life.  I opted to make
her comfortable in her last days.  The vets gave her a shot that drained the
fluid off her lungs.  She was now able to sleep and was able to breath
normally again.  They prescribed the same medicine people with the same
disease take to keep the fluid off the lungs.  I medicated her twice daily
and she began to improve and regain some energy.  She never started eating.
I had a chicken soup recipe from the FML and also fed her Suscatal.  She
loved both and I had to feed her this for the rest of her life.  She lived
for 3 months.  She gradually improved and almost seemed normal for a while.
One day she was playing with me...just like she was better!!!  Then she
suddenly went into the corner and started gasping real loud.  She never
played again after that.  She went down hill slowly.  It was about a 6 week
uphill climb and then that event and 6 weeks downhill.  One day I noticed
her breathing was getting noticebly worse.  She went down hill very quickly
this time and she was gone by the next morning.
 
I really thought for a while that I could keep her alive indefinitely with
the medication.  She was doing so well for a while.  One thing that I think
I did wrong....I left the bottle of medication on the counter exposed to
light.  Maybe it lost it's effectiveness.  This was about four years ago.
 
Have your ferret checked!  You don't have to let your ferret suffer the way
mine did.  At an early stage, maybe your ferret will live for months or
years but need to be on medication!
 
Please let me know what happens and if you need any more information!
 
Good luck!
Anita Klein
[Posted in FML issue 1999]