My oldest fuzzy Sprinkles, who some of you may recall from a near-fatal
distemper shot episode awhile back, has a recurring problem and I'm
wondering if there's anything else I can do for her.
 
Up until the distemper incident, Sprinkles was strong and healthy as a
horse.  (This is a ferret who decided she wanted the king-size goose
down comforter to herself, so BY HERSELF she dragged it off my futon
and halfway across the room, a distance of about ten feet.) After that
incident she became considerably more lethargic and lost a fair amount of
weight.  She still plays and runs around and does ferret-y things so I'm
not overwhelmingly concerned.
 
One thing that she DID start doing immediately after the distemper
incident was VIOLENT fits of sneezing.  At first it was determined that
she was somewhat allergic to the antibiotics that she was on, but she
hasn't been on them for over a year.  She occasionally goes into these
fits of upwards of 20-30 powerfully violent sneezes.  When they happen I
will pick her up and gently hold her (I don't restrain her in any way)
or put her in an area where she won't hit anything with all of her
sneeze-thrashing.  USUALLY she has a fit of ~10 sneezes and then trots
away, case closed.
 
Occasionally -- like today, hence this message -- she will go on repeated
fits.  It's 11:50am as I write this; 45 minutes ago she started going
ballistic.  I held her in the kitchen (which is warmer than the living
room) for about 15-20 minutes while she sneezed up a storm.  She quieted
down a bit, so I defrosted some duck soup and gave it to her.  She ate a
fair amount of it, then curled up and went to sleep and has been quiet
ever since.
 
Usually as the weather cools down I give them some Vita-Sol in their water
and increase their Ferretone treats as well.  But poor Sprinkles sometimes
looks like she's gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson after these episodes; her
eyes are watery, her nose is runny, and she can barely stand up because
she's so dizzy from the thrashing around.  I have a small space heater
which I'm going to set up near the cage so they get a little more warmth,
but does anyone have any ideas as to
(a) what could be causing these fits,
(b) how to stop them, or
(c) if I can't stop them, how can I ease the severity of them?
[Posted in FML issue 3628]