Food(breathing problems)

Question
Yes Hi.  I have a ferret that I have now owned for 2 1/2 months his name is Harley. Every time he eats his Marshalls food he starts to try and lick his chest. The other day he began to breath heavy kind of like a choking breathing I was so worried I rushed him to the vet. The vet took a full body x-ray, listen to his lungs and gave him some medicine (something like penicillin) I gave him all the medicine and did what the doctor told me and a week later Harley was sick again...He would go hide in the pantry and it was like he was weezing and no comfortable. I called the doctor back and he said I needed to bring him back to the vet but I could not afford to pay $200 for the doctor to tell me its nothing and give him antibiotics again.  So I told the doc this and he told me to give him Childrens Benadryl and he told me to try and change his food. So again I did as I was told. The benadryl worked he stopped weezing but he was sleeping all day. Its like he is always out of breath. Anyways my question to you is do you think he is allergic to his food because it seems that he only gets the breathing problem when he is eating. Or maybe is it just getting stuck in his throat. I am sorry my e-mail seems all bundled up I just love my ferret so much and I could not bear loosing him.

Answer
Hello and thanks for writing.

It is very possible he's allergic to his food, but it's also possible he's lethargic for other reasons. A ferret-knowledgeable vet would do a full blood workup as part of an exam in response to something like this, and that is what I would suggest.

We don't recommend Marshall's food for several reasons, one of which is the shape of their pellets, which can easily get stuck in a ferret's mouth. Try changing to another premium brand such as Totally Ferret, 8-In-1 Ultimate, or ZuPreem.  Do it gradually, i.e. a 75%/25% mix for a few days, then a 50/50 mix for a few days, then 25/75, then finally 100% of the new brand.

Also, I strongly recommend that you post this problem to the Ferret Health List over at Yahoo. The address is:  

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/

Tell them what you told me here and you will get several expert responses from people with years of daily experience in ferret health issues just like this (the list is monitored by veterinarians and vet techs, too).

Best of luck to Harley; let me know how it goes -
DG