To Heather Bell about Abi in the litterbox and Samson:
 
We have one ferret that is extremely embarassed to go to the bathroom if any
human can see her. She will squat and then if she makes eye contact with
you, say you are even just walking by, she will stop doing her business and
run somewhere else to do her business. If she is in the litterbox and you
walk by, you have to look away and pretend you don't see her. She will also
run and hide to vomit. She absolutely will not do any personal business in
front of any human. So, if we are worried about her we have to hide around
the corner, or even just turning away will sometimes do it. Or we have even
thrown a towel over her if she panics too much. She is a rescue ferret, and
we figured maybe her former human yelled at her (or worse) if she ever made
a mess and so this might be why she acts this way. However, it could just be
that she is embarrassed and maybe Abi is too. Just a thought. And of course,
follow up on that obstruction possibility.
 
About the upper respiratory infections, we had this go around when we
brought 2 new ones in from a pet store. All but one got over it in short
order. Edith however really was hit hard. She got so stuffed up she would
try and spray the gunk out of her nose. She made such a racket! She snored
all night long too. It took a good 4 weeks for Edith to get better. We did
the amoxi (probably the pink stuff you refer to) route and also humidifiers,
childrens nose drops, garlic drops, and when things got really bad we'd run
a steaming hot shower and turn the bathroom into a sauna and close Edith in
with the steam. She needed help eating during this time too. I don't think
she could smell or taste, so food was not appealing to her at all. While she
was sick her balance was wacky and so she fell off of the bed a lot. She got
better and is in perfect health to this day but it took a lot of TLC! Good
luck.   charlene
[Posted in FML issue 1323]