Some time ago one of my ferrets began coughing/sneezing episodes and
he was having difficulty catching his breath. It definitely was some
sort of respiratory problem. Days or weeks would go by before he
would experience another episode. Weeks later, another of the ferrets
starting the same thing and then the other two eventually started up.
I could not describe what it sounded like and these episodes seemed to
only happen between 2am and 6am. I was very frightened because they
acted as if they could not breathe. They weren't exactly sneezing,
nor were they coughing. Whenever one of them started up, I awoke
immediately. It was something you could not sleep through.

I recorded the coughing/hacking/sneezing sound on a cassette tape and
took it to my vet. The first thing he said was that it sounded like
kennel cough in dogs. Ozzie was definitely making a loud barking sound
when he had one of these episodes. The episodes became more frequent
and all 4 ferrets were all put on Azithromycin. Ozzie took it for weeks
and I haven't heard him experience any difficulties for a while (at
least while I'm at home in the evening or during the night). Tyler is
still having difficulty (this morning) and it's been months now. The
other two have experienced no symptoms lately. I have taken the ferrets
back to the vet so he could check their progress. This horrible thing
just doesn't seem to be going away. I'm sure it's not allergies because
each ferret contracted the same symptoms, one after the other. Has
anyone else experienced this?

[Posted in FML 5650]