The dangers of paper towel rolls can't be stressed enough!  I never let my
ferrets play with them, but last night, after cleaning the cage, I forgot to
put a roll up.  I was on the computer when I saw Dizzi out of the corner of
my eye.  She was thrashing all over with a whole roll stuck on her head!  I
honestly don't think I have ever been more scared in my life!  I screamed
for my husband and went running into the room where he was.  His family was
sitting at the table talking and they all started laughing!  How can someone
think that is so funny?  I wanted to *kill* ... how could anyone be that
ignorant?!
 
We got the roll off her head (went to the shoulders) and she was
hypreventilating.  I was holding her and trying to calm her down and I
noticed that she was extremely hot!  Luckily, I work for a vet...I called
the answering service and they immediately got him on the phone.  At this
time, her eyes were closed and watery (looked like she was crying) and she
was wheezing.  Since I live 30 minutes from the clinic, my boss told me to
put her in a cold bath.  After about 2 minutes in fairly cool water, she
really calmed down and started breathing normally.  She even stopped
"crying".  All I can say, besides that I'm so happy she's okay, is that one
thing you don't want to do is learn from your own mistakes!  As I said, I do
*not* let them play with the rolls...I just forgot to put one up after
cleaning the cage.  I don't even want to think about what could have
happened if I hadn't been in the room!
 
Thankfully, she is back to her old (posessed) self this morning!
 
Take care of yourself and your fuzzies!
 
Brooke and the 5 fabulous fuzzies.
 
On a separate note...everyone in NW FL and the west coast of FL, take care.
To anyone who doesn't know...Tropical Storm Josephine is on the way!
[Posted in FML issue 1715]