This may sound strange, but . . .
 
I know of a woman that has recently had a ferret put down.  He was
coughing hoarsely.  He was put on all sorts of antibiotics as they were
sure he had bacterial pneumonia.  They did an x-ray of his lungs.  They
were hideous.  The vet commented that they looked like the lungs of a
human with emphysema.  His breathing became more laboured.  She tried all
sorts of different things, but found the most humane thing to do was to
put him down.  He was three years old.  She had a full PM done on him.
Upon opening the lungs, the vet said the ferret had emphysema.  The owner
is a smoker.  Has anybody else seen this?
[Posted in FML issue 3677]