Years ago we had an adorable female silver ferret named Tinder. She was always slight in build and very quiet when she slept. One day, we heard these high pitched sounds coming from behind the couch that sounded like snoring. When we checked out the source, we found it was Tinder and she was deep in sleep. We thought her snores were quite adorable. When you heard them, it made you go "awwwwwww". They certainly made it easy for us to know where she was. One day, we were playing with her and noticed a hard lump at the side of her neck. It had been about a month since the snoring started. An x-ray was done revealing a large mass that was pushing her trachea up and over to the left. Surgery was scheduled and the mass was removed. It was described as a grape like cluster of hard globs that had soft centers. It was suspected that it could have come from an old injury, but no one could be certain. Unfortunately, my vet at the time threw the mass out and I did not get to see it. (Damn!) Tinder's throat was stuffed with surgical dissolving sponges and sewed back up. (Otherwise the space left would have been massive and would have collapsed. I was told the spongy material gave time for the internal tissue to realign itself properly.) Over the course of the next few months, she recovered well and became snore free. She was expected to put on more weight, and more weight came on fast. By the following year we had to euthanize her because she got so big. Her vet misdiagnosed it as kidney failure. A necropsy revealed a body filled with nothing but fat instead, from head to toe. No cause could ever be determined. I put up a website to show people what she looked like. Many people had contacted me about her with similar cases. Some people found ways to deal with their situations successfully and I am extremely grateful for being able to share in their successes. Euthanizing Tinder is one of my greatest regrets to date, but I also know that had I dealt with a vet who was more ferret knowledgeable that I may have still had her today. One of the biggest unanswered questions I still carry with me is whether or not there was a direct correlation between the mass in her throat to the fat building up in her body. I'll never know, and I will have to live with that. Every situation is a learning experience and I keep having to tell myself that times were different back then. Today I have a vet I can trust and who works well with me. I do not want Tinder to have died in vain... My best advice is to get those snoring ferrets properly checked out. Some snoring is not a good sign. Do body checks on a regular basis and if you suspect something, don't hesitate to see a vet. If you don't feel comfortable with the vet you have, find another one. I am presently working on a new web site that will have her story up again. Once it is completed, I'll repost it to this group. In loving memory of Tinder... betty and her blur o'fur for the love of ferrets [Posted in FML issue 4056]