Mary, ferrets do NOT catch colds. Believe me, if they did catch rhinoviruses the pharmaceuticals would welcome having them as a research animal for developing product so to tackle it. They do get Influenza A strains and they do get bacterial sinus infections. There are some very, very important reason for people to know that even though bacterial sinus infections can be mistakenly thought to be "colds". Viruses like rhinoviruses do not respond to antibiotics but bacterial infections do. Ferrets often do not show the severity of a respiratory infection until x-rays are done. We've had one with a tiny cough who sounded normal with a stethoscope and turned out on x-rays (followed by an emergency ultrasound) to have pneumonia AND pleurisy. We took her in on an emergency basis because normally she had no cough at all and because she "told" me that she didn't feel well by gently holding my big toe in her mouth which was something she only did when ill. It was touch and go but she survived and had years ahead of her. Bacterial sinus infections in ferrets had a decent chance of worsening to become lower respiratory tract infections like pneumonia so it is best to take them seriously. Also, wash hands, wash hands, wash hands folks! We have had only one ferret who has caught influenza from us through the years, only two who were known to have caught sinus infections for sure but the one who got pneumonia was probably a third. That is over the space of 23 years with ferrets in the family when we humans have had a number of these infections. There is an awful lot of good to be said for careful hand washing as you can see by the low infection rate we have had here among the ferrets despite human illnesses! [Posted in FML issue 4676]