Well, Death Adder, I'm afraid that I've got to mention that although I
haven't heard of studies specifically in ferrets there actually are
studies in other members of carnivora finding increased levels of
respiratory ills (including asthma) and increased levels of at least one
type of malignancy -- similar findings to in humans who have exposure.
 
Your point about the dust intake is a good one, and certainly worth
remembering, but since the ferret's problem decreased markedly once the
side stream smoke was gone, and since there are hundreds of nasties in
such smoke -- from formaldahyde through a pile of other things -- it does
make sense that this was a likely source of the ferret's problem rather
than this being plain old picking on smokers.  I have very mixed feelings
about people's smoking.  I have asthma and am very allergic to tobacco,
and my mother was a smoker and was horribly addicted, lighting one
cigarette from another to the point where in private she would have two
in her mouth at once as one was winding down.  Then I spent a year
nursing her through the end of a smoking related malignancy that began on
her Vagus Nerve in her chest so that she had torturous pain for about 3
years form nerve damage and from slowly rotting from the inside out --
not technical but pretty danged accurate in how it presents in
pain,appearance, and odor.  My sister took it up from her and could not
quit till she got pregnant.  What I am saying is that I understand how
people start, why they get trapped so very often, and how strong that
trap is, but i also know what it can do.  Hence, the resulting mixed
feelings.  Never-the-less, I can say that I have seen smokers act like
the smoke is blamed wrongly -- and like blaming the smoke is the same
as blaming the smoker when it is not though it takes one to have the
other -- when actually there is good to excellent reason to hold the
smoke to blame.  After a person has been smoking for a while that often
is a side-effect of it being so hard to hard to stop smoking in public
areas, I think, and defensiveness about that, if Mom's and Nan's and
some friends' behaviors are any guide.  In this ferret's case there very
possibly is a good reason to think that this is a ferret who has tender
lungs (which may have ben tender before the smoke exposure or made tender
by the smoke exposure) and that things do cause irritation including
smoke for this ferret.  The evidence just makes sense for this ferret.
 
BTW, we couldn't even have non-beeswax candles burning when we had Ruffle
who had asthma, which is just as well because they are safer for us, too,
when we lose power.
 
Ruffle was helped by finding what allergens we could and eliminating
them, and by Pediatric Benedryl, but OF COURSE first get a veterinary
assessment and tests such as possibly a chest x-ray on the ferret to
make sure nothing else is going on.
[Posted in FML issue 4269]