Okay, just a clarification, and you can check this by looking at past
posts of Dr. Bruce Williams who is a veterinary pathologist ferret
expert -- the specialty with the directly applicable knowledge: ferrets
don't get colds.  Colds are caused by rhinoviruses.  Pharmaceutical
companies would love it if ferrets could be a disease model for colds,
but it's been known for ages that they just do not get rhinoviruses.
Now, it is not usual for a mild upper respiratory infection to be widely
termed a "cold" so some people figure that it doesn't make a difference
whether the term is used, but here is why it does:
 
1. Ferrets have died when people used human OTC cold meds on them
 
2. The things that ferrets get which look like colds are actually *more
serious infections* which can move into the lungs, set the stage for
secondary infections, cause an abscess, or otherwise get out of control.
These usually are influenza, followed by bacterial sinus infections.
BTW, both of these can be gotten from humans or given to humans, and
with sinus infections there can be silent carrier among humans.  I do
not know if there are any silent carriers among ferrets with bacterial
sinus infections.
 
Lethargy and dehydration indicate that it is possible that further
infection has taken place.  Ferrets are entirely capable of having
pneumonia, pleurisy, or both and still sounding fine so given that there
was a respiratory infection it makes sense to x-ray the chest, and also
to consider the possibility of a sinus infection gone wild and check
upper respiratory places where it may be nestled.  A sinus infection
makes all food and water smell funny and makes it hard to swallow, both
of which make a ferret unlikely to drink or eat.
 
I am afraid that this could easily be one situation where knowing that
ferrets don't get colds beforehand could have come in very useful to
forestall worse illness, but it is wide-spread belief that they get them
so you can't beat yourself up about it, just move forward instead.  That
is all any of us can do in such a situation.  Okay?
 
Provide steam.  Heat a soup of water and a/d (which smells more so is a
better solution, or puree cooked liver since that will smell a lot) or
meat baby food to about ferret body temp, put a towel on your lap and
with a spoon and your fingers patiently help this little one drink and
eat slowly.  Sing to the ferret or talk softly and use the ferret's name
often.  A ferret who is already having trouble breathing is going to be
more prone to poor swallowing so the risk of getting food in the lungs is
higher if you force things, and that is always a bad thing but for this
little one it would be really, really bad.  Being dehydrated actually
further reduces appetite, a bad cycle in ferrets.
 
Most of all: this little one NEEDS vet care and needs it right away.  A
chest x-ray NEEDS to be done, ditto other ways that a sinus infection
or influenza can go wrong need to be invested.  The chances are that
hydration needs to be provided by the vet, by sub-cu if not terribly out
of hand, but the vet may need to cut-down and place an IV (a two or two+
person job in a situation like this).  It is likely that a couple of
antibiotics will be needed if there is pneumonia or an abscess.  Ferrets
hide serious respiratory infections very well.  We have had one with
pleurisy and pneumonia whose almost entire thoracic cavity was opaque
and who was actually near death whose only symptom was a slight amount
of of coughing (unusual for her so we got to the vet) and who sounded
normal for chest sounds.  If an x-ray had not been done and people had
not jumped she would have died.  Sadly, that hidden aspect for serious
respiratory infections is not unusual in ferrets.
 
We are having some cable problems today, so I hope that this reaches
you soon enough; it has to wait for our location to be back on line.
 
Hopefully, someone else has written you with the same information already
or you have already gotten to a vet who has followed through.
 
-- Sukie (not a vet)
Ferret Health List co-moderator
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives fan
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
replacing
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International Ferret Congress advisor
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 5161]