Hilbert appears to again be having seasonal allergy problems but with asthma involved this year. We do have access to an emergency hospital which can x-ray his chest today in case of infection if he worsens. Here is my general post to the Ferret Health List and Ferret Mailing List and I would greatly appreciate *****INFO ON ASTHMA TREATMENTS***** for ferrets from those who have treated asthma more aggressively since our past experience includes one who controlled well enough with Benedryl but not more severe asthma. I think that we should watch him carefully also because sometimes physical stress can create a need to increase the Fludrocort and Prednisolone to avoid Addison Crisis. --- Our highly allergic little guy began having problems that I noticed yesterday on my return, exhausted from tending some family needs away. (With Hilbert very quiet and *hidden* coughing would be in character till it became impossible to hide, so is possible but not really likely because he and Steve are so extremely close. What did show up in the three days when I was away was that he was more clingy but that can have a range of causes.) Hilbert has a history of allergies. I don't know the timing for sure but my notes to others on it seem to show that he has at least once, perhaps as often as three times had his dermal allergies which can also get secondary bacterial infections (once severe), and I see that at *least one of those times it was just about now that it started* so there may be a local pollen that nails him abut now. I am not discounting that I might have accidently brought back something like a pollen in some of Dad's things or on my clothing but the timing could be a coincidence. I checked the NAB reports and the local pollens did shift yesterday. He was gagging so at first i thought it was his stomach, but neither petroleum jelly for ingested fur, nor a bit of Carafate brought him any relief. Then my brain finally kicked in a little and we tried a bit of Benedryl (which he absolutely hates) and each time (twice) that he has had Benedryl now he has felt and sounded so much better within 20 minutes that he could even play. Steaming him also brings relief. (I use a clothing steamer with both of us getting steamed together.) For night I was worried that perhaps Benedryl might not be good to give so close to his Fludrocort and Prednisolone (both adrenals became very inflamed from irritation when he had his bilateral hydronephrosis, bladder diverticulum and cystine uroliths when young but the R had to have vascular clamps so we are always aware that hormonal cortical tissue might regrow from remnants though it hasn't yet). What I did last night was I upped his Prednisolone to 0.4 mg from 0.2 mg. That also brought enough relief for a while that he could sleep well. We'll pick up a range of baby foods and we have AD so those will help provide nutrition and fluids as soupy foods. Here is part of yesterday's National Allergy Bureau report for this area and here are the things that differ from earlier in it though with our first hot spell there could be others: the level of grass pollen in higher (but in the past he cleared up after about a month so unless it is a specific grass I don't think grass is the likely problem unless he has a new allergy) > 3. Walnut, Butternut: 1/cubic meter were not blooming before and there certainly are walnuts around here, and there could be butternuts >> 1. Plantain: 1/cubic meter I've been told that the weed variant of Plantain is very common in the neighboring swamp and it was not blooming earlier. So, now we will be getting vet care while treating for allergy and hoping there is no infection, secondary or otherwise. His axillary nodes are up a bit but not hard and the others are not up. So far his skin seems okay though he was a bit itchy before the Benedryl, but when that happens it is a bit itchy for a while and then it just worsens dramatically. FERRET ASTHMA TREATMENT INFO (the ferret has the asthma not the people reacting to him), ANYONE? Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html [Posted in FML 5996]