Dear Ferret Folks-

We had a scare tonight. My little nephew Alex, now 6 had a sleep-over
at our house. That is routine. He sleeps in my grandmother's yellow
sofa with the pull out bed. He's slept in it at least 25 times. But
this time it was different. He lay down and after about fifteen minutes
he had a wretched asthma attack (he has moderate chronic asthma for
which he takes medication), and his eyes swelled half shut. Reasonably,
we took him to the local E.R. And just like when your bring your sick
ferret to the vet, by the time we got him to the E.R. the swelling had
gone down greatly, and he was breathing much better. They gave him some
Benadryl, and sent him home to his bed.

Why did he improve so miraculously? I think because we took him out of
the pull out bed. Something in it caused him to react. Now, it has been
raining here for weeks, and I have a hardwood floor. Believe it or not,
in a place like the space under a sofa in very high humidity you can
actually grow mildew on a hard wood floor. It's not always easy to see,
either. Especially in a dark place, like under a sofa. I have mild
asthma, and nothing triggers me like mildew. Tomorrow I am pulling the
entire sofa aside and washing the floor with something *fierce*. I am
also going to change all the bedding, and vacuum the sofa for animal
fur. The yellow sofa has for ten years been one of the very favourite
spots in my home for ferrets to nap.

I've been going over the night in my mind. I can't think of anything
in the house or the sofa that has changed, except that Caff-Pow has
just recently started sleeping in the sofa. It took him a while to
figure out that it was a good nap spot. Todd knew, but didn't tell,
apparently. Caff-Pow is the only whole hob that I have ever lived with.
Certainly, his waste is different. Much more pungent than your standard
Marshal Farms dookie. I have to clean the cage twice as often as I
have been accustomed to doing. He has a stronger body odor than I am
accustomed to. Is it possible that a whole hob is likelier to trigger
allergies in a sensitive person than the spayed and neutered ferrets
that I have always had in the past?

Please don't read this and mis-understand. Caff-Pow is family. This is
his home. We'll make whatever accommodations we have to to ensure that
Alex can continue to have sleep overs without incident, because he is
family, too. And yes, Caff-Pow has a stronger scent but I don't find it
offensive. He smells like a *ferret*. A healthy, vigorous ferret. And
it may be that Caff-Pow had nothing to do with Alex's reaction, and all
of this is a moot point. Scent doesn't necessarily have *anything* to
do with shedding antigens that can trigger an immune response. But if
people know that whole hobs can trigger allergies in the sensitive I
would like to know about it so that I can plan appropriately.

Please advise!

Alexandra in MA

[Posted in FML 6375]