Dear FMLers........ I recently submitted that my ferret, Trixie, is obsessed with banana chips, dried ........ well, we're no longer giving them to her. We almost lost her last night in our ignorance, and I'm so glad we didn't because I never would have been able to forgive myself. My husband had given Trixie the chip, and she was in her cage eating it when she began rasping and wheezing..........she tried to hack the lodged chip up, but it wouldn't budge. We opened her mouth and could see the banana chip lodged in her throat. She also had eaten some papaya after the chip, and it was stuck and couldn't go down because the chip was blocking her airway so much. She would hold her breath and get real still, and we really thought she was going to die. We forced water down her throat with a syringe to soften the chip, lots and lots of water. She was mad at us for doing it, but it was the only think we could think of. We'd pick her up and she'd whine, everything seemed to hurt her. After about 30 minutes we finally called the emergency vet in Ft. Collins and told them ~ they said to bring her in. Tom went and got his shoes on and got dressed, and suddenly Trixie stopped rasping. She stopped whining. She started wardancing all over the place, trying to take my keys out of my hand, and getting really mad because we were holding her. Tom thought the chip might have dislodge, and looked, but thought he could still see it in her throat. So we took her to the vet anyway, spent $60 to find out that she'd already swallowed it. (The water had made the chip slimy enough to slide down.) So to our relief, our little ferret is hyper and happy now. She's fine ~ but she's not getting banana chips ever again. Beware! Love and Dooks to all, Tom, Shea & Trixie Trixie: "Momma, quit crying ~ it's in my belly!!!" [Posted in FML issue 3022]