Mary, ferrets do NOT catch colds.  Believe me, if they did catch
rhinoviruses the pharmaceuticals would welcome having them as a
research animal for developing product so to tackle it.
 
They do get Influenza A strains and they do get bacterial sinus
infections.
 
There are some very, very important reason for people to know that
even though bacterial sinus infections can be mistakenly thought to be
"colds".
 
Viruses like rhinoviruses do not respond to antibiotics but bacterial
infections do.
 
Ferrets often do not show the severity of a respiratory infection until
x-rays are done.  We've had one with a tiny cough who sounded normal
with a stethoscope and turned out on x-rays (followed by an emergency
ultrasound) to have pneumonia AND pleurisy.  We took her in on an
emergency basis because normally she had no cough at all and because
she "told" me that she didn't feel well by gently holding my big toe in
her mouth which was something she only did when ill.  It was touch and
go but she survived and had years ahead of her.
 
Bacterial sinus infections in ferrets had a decent chance of worsening
to become lower respiratory tract infections like pneumonia so it is
best to take them seriously.
 
Also, wash hands, wash hands, wash hands folks!  We have had only one
ferret who has caught influenza from us through the years, only two who
were known to have caught sinus infections for sure but the one who got
pneumonia was probably a third.  That is over the space of 23 years
with ferrets in the family when we humans have had a number of these
infections.  There is an awful lot of good to be said for careful hand
washing as you can see by the low infection rate we have had here among
the ferrets despite human illnesses!
[Posted in FML issue 4676]