Dear X: I think that you would need to have a pathologist confirm the presence of emphysema here. Emphysema is the breakdown of the alveolar walls - the walls between the little grape-like clusters of the air sacs. We can actually see this finding in animals that breathe very heavily prior to death, or those with long-term bad coughs, as you mention here. I have seen many ferrets who belonged to smokers, and they do indeed have excess carbon material in their lungs, but emphysema is not a finding. With kindest regards, Bruce Williams, DVM P.S. A good gross post is still not as good as a routine microscopic analysis! [Posted in FML issue 3680]