From:
"Cathy"
Date: 2007-06-07 14:47:48 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Raspy Breathing in a ferret
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
So this question pertains to one of my personal ferrets. Here's some
info on him. Bristol is approximately 6 years old, of that time, he's
spent about 5 years of his life in shelters. He was originally a
Vegas ferret then was transferred up to a shelter in Idaho. He was
born with very tiny little eyes and has been blind from birth. He was
adopted out to a home with his lifelong cagemate, and somehow he got
bounced around from home to home for a while and ended up getting
fumigated with about 5 other ferrets. So he got returned to the
shelter, most of the other fumigated ferrets died, I believe him and
another one were the only ones that are currently alive. Most died on
the spot, one died of complications later, and then it was these two.
And his lifelong cagemate, who acted like his eyes was also killed in
the fumigation incident.
So I adopted him because he is older and has a possibility of having
underlying medical problems, and was somewhat depressed about losing
his cagemate. So he is overweight and always has been since we got
him. So he's chubby, not obese, just a bit chubby. He always
breathed much heavier than other ferrets when he sleeps, which I
attributed to his weight. However recently we had a hot streak last
week where the temps got in the high 80s, so our house got in the high
70s temp wise, since we didn't have our air conditioners installed
yet. At that time he was having very raspy breathing. It reminded me
of when ferrets have some hair stuck in their throat. The breathing
was normal when he slept, but when he was up walking around, his
breathing was very raspy and not normal at all. Since the temps have
dropped back down into the 50s, he's back to normal.
What would cause this? Obviously if the temps are low, he's fine, but
if the temp goes above 75 he has problems. Which later in the
spring/summer we'll have the air conditioner on, so it won't be a
problem regulating temps, we're just curious what would cause the
breathing issues.
We thought that maybe due to the fumigation, some lung tissue died, so
he doesn't have full lung capacity anymore, so when he breathes
heavily, it causes the breathing to become raspy and difficult.
Another shelter thought that maybe he had early stages of heart
failure and had fluid either in or around his lungs.
So if anyone has any thoughts we'd love to hear them. We're pretty
sure that he'll develop other cancers later on due to the fumigation
and inhalation of all those deadly chemicals, but right now we're just
interested in his breathing issues.
Thanks.
Cathy
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