I am betting that a vet pathologist who deals with the needs of ferrets
will be your best chance for seeing if this is possible.  A friend who
is one in temporarily off-line, though.  Your vet should know vet
pathologists to ask or a search will lead you to some who know ferrets.
 
The single best vet text I have for this type of search, _Biology and
Diseases of the Ferret_, is very inclusive (also containing many of the
areas in which ferrets are used in health studies).  It does not list
Hep C in the index.
 
Have you tried Hubmed?  (It is a recent update related to Pubmed and I
find it to be more useful.) Go to http://www.pmbrowser.info/
 
(BTW, ferrets do NOT get colds.  They can get some of the bacterial sinus
infections we get, and they get Influenza A strains (I am uncertain as to
other strains.).  Believe me, if they got colds it would be known because
they would be handier, easier, less expensive, more affordable, and safer
animal for studies than some others like primates.  It is not at all
uncommon for people to have and share mild influenzas or more commonly
sinus infections while thinking that they are colds; in fact, it is a
very common thing to have happen.  Besides, I know from a truly excellent
ferret veterinary pathologist, Dr. Bruce Williams, that they don't get
rhinoviruses.
 
Oh, and an FYI: influenzas are widely spread, crossing many species lines
and even the lines higher than Orders, being able to be contracted by
certain primates, swine, birds, etc.  so it is no surprise that ferrets
can get at least some.)
 
Re: pot:
Well, I can think of one way that topic relates to ferrets.  They can
glaucoma, and cannabis has compounds which may help with ocular
hypertension, but then again it is hard on the lungs and it also often
messes badly with the hormonal system.  (Yes, this relates to ferrets.)
Years ago I had two experimental breast surgery procedures -- the first
in the U.S.  to have a wedge mastectomy and also I had a scarification
process which turns out to at times work for those of us who keloid
easily but not for others.  Anyway, my surgeon who was also a professor
who specialized in diseases of the breast was telling me about some
recent surgeries he had done on teenaged boys.  Smoking pot during early
puberty had caused them to wind up producing unusual levels of estrogen
(much too high) and they had to have mastectomies because they were
forming actual female breasts (not just the fat enlargement seen with
overweight) as a result, but real functional female breasts.  The cause
was known and documented even then according to him.
 
Okay, here is how this relates to ferrets: I can't recall seeing it
asked about before, but can exposure to pot perhaps cause a similar
endocrinological problem with too much estrogen being circulating?
Certainly we all know the problems that too much estrogen production
can cause with prolonged estrus or with adrenal neoplasia.  I wonder if
exposure to pot may also throw them off and have negative health results.
 
I am looking forward to seeing what drugs might be derived from studies
of the compounds.  (For humans as well as for ferrets, since humans also
sure get ocular hypertension and we have a worse time of it with some
types of chemo treatments and there are compounds in pot which reduce
those terrible side effects.) I DO wonder about which compounds had the
hormonal effects, though and when and how they could be used or should be
avoided, for ferrets as well as for humans.
 
I wish that our country would legalize the non-intoxicant varieties due
to other useful products (marvelous cloth rather like good linen, rope,
etc.  from plants which are easier on the soil than some others) which
could help the farm community, and I do find it kind of silly that
cannabis is illegal to grow when opium poppies are legal to grow in many
areas (but since those poppy seeds stay vital for many decades till soil
is disturbed -- which is why so many bloomed after WWI -- they are pretty
well impossible to eradicate once they are in an area for old herb
gardens).  As is no secret, I've got asthma and I'm not one to get
blotto, either, as an adult so I haven't personally been around pot in 30
years, though I did try some NYT and product recipes for sterilized seeds
without intoxicants maybe 10 years ago when it was a fad (breading for
fried foods, etc.) but we were so-so about the flavor and threw away most
of it unused ages ago.
 
Any idea if exposure to marijuana may be risk factor for adrenal growth
worsening, problems with gestation, or for prostate problems in ferrets?
[Posted in FML issue 4310]