Hello FMLers
 
There have been a couple of post lately about respiratory problems and
sneezing with your Fuzzys, We had a similar problem at the beginning of the
year which I posted about on 2-27-99.
 
It started with our youngest ferret Chomper, he would have an occasional
sneeze and with it being the cold and flu season at that time we had him
checked at the vets, everything seemed fine the lungs were clear and his
weigh was a little heavier from his last visit.
 
In about a weeks time the sneezing turned into a cough and he begin
wheezing in his sleep.  He did not rest well at all and he would turn his
head from side to side when eating as if it hurt to chew, and he would
drink less from the water bottle in favor of the water bowl.  He played
less and less with us and our outher fuzzy Slinky, it seemed like all he
wonted to do was lay on the floor and rest.
 
Back to the vets we go !  !  !
 
The vet took x-rays and ran a cbc, again the lungs were clear and the x-ray
showed nothing out of the ordinary but the cbc indicated an infection and
he found a enlarged lymph node in his neck.  There were also raspy sounds
from the upper airway and he had lost a few ounces.  He sent us home with
Amoxi.  and Baytril, I forget the dose and times but we followed them
closely.  We also fed him mush made with his kibble and warm water and gave
him Ferritive and Pedylite to keep the food and water levels up.
 
Over the course of four days he ate a little better and his poops looked
OK, not dark or seedy and were well formed but he had trouble sleeping and
he still did not play much at all, he still wheezed at night and would pant
any time he was active.
 
Back to the vets we go !  !  !
 
Our vet took another cbc which showed the infection was going down and the
lymph node was normal again but he still had a raspy sound in the upper
airway.  The vet asked if he could take a look at Chompers upperairway but
to do so he would have to sedate him, we agreed and he used gas to put him
out.  After sedating him he discovered a hair mass behind chompers soft
palate which he pulled out, it was a matted clump of hair about 1/4" wide
and 1&1/4" long.  Chomper was allowed to come around for about 1/2 hour
then he was put back under and the vet flushed the air way to clean it out.
This cleared up the raspy sound and chomper could breath much easier.
 
We took him home and he ate and slept and played like nothing was ever
wrong.  We have had to do this one more time and I cant help but think that
there is something we are missing because I've not read about this on the
FML, what do you ferret knowledgeable folks think?  is there something else
we should be doing?.  Is this something the posters with respiratory
problems should look into because this cant be happening to just one ferret
 
Did`nt mean to post so long but this may help some fuzzy and maybe someone
could tell us what we could be doing different so chomper wont have to go
through this again.
 
Bill F.  Jonesboro Ark
 
With Slinky & Chomper
[Posted in FML issue 2707]