We have an urgent problem and I'm hoping someone can help us. Our 5 month old male ferret is really sick and our vet doesn't know what's wrong. Our vet is pretty knowledgable about ferrets but he says he's never seen a case like this before, and as my wife and I live in Japan, it's difficult to get information sometimes. Briefly, here's what's happening; On Sunday evening we noticed that our ferret, Riki, was lethargic and seemed to not want to get up and play so we let him sleep. Perhaps we should have known at that time that something was wrong. Monday morning, he was the same so we took him out of the cage to play but as soon as we set hime down, he collapsed. His hind legs seemed to be strong although he had trouble scratching. His front legs have no strength at all although he can move them.I felt around his body but he didn't seem to be in pain anywhere. When he moves, he pushes himself around using his hind legs. As we were getting ready to go to the vet, he also seemed to have a strange wheeze or cough and his nose was running a little. He still eats and drinks and his stools seem normal although he can't make it to the litter. At the vet, his hind legs also seemed to have lost strength. The vet wanted to take blood, and shaved Riki, but wasn't able to draw blood because Riki is only 5 months old (???). Our other ferret, Juliet, is fine but for the time being we have them separated. Our vet said it could be one of many things (distemper, influenza). We have another appointment at a different vet in Nagoya in a few hours but our regular vet didn't seem to think anything could be done. I don't mean to second guess him, but I also don't think a second opinion could hurt which is why we set up an emergency appointment at the other place. Has anyone ever seen or heard of a case like this and give us some advice? Riki seems to be getting worse by the moment. Once in a while his breathing seems a little laboured but soon goes back to normal. He was fine on Saturday, running and jumping around like usual. As far as we know, he didn't fall or have an accident as we were in the room the whole time they were playing. Anyhow, I'm leaving work now to go with my wife to the vet but will check my email as much as possible. Any advice, help etc. would really be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. Kevin and Masami Kariya, Japan [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 2832]