coughing

Question
hello, my youngest ferret has been coughing a lot lately - not sure if it's cause he's been shedding, and has hairballs, but i also don't want to take any chances. sometimes he gets going and won't stop, but it doesn't seem to bother him terribly. i got marshall's ferret lax and have been giving it to him for the last couple days, and i haven't seen him do it since them. is there anything else i should be worried about? just wondering. and one other question - one of my older ferrets has a little growth on the end of his anus - i brought him to the vet and he said as long as it's not bothering him (he eats fine, plays, does all the normal ferret things!) to leave it unless it gets bigger. i'm worried and i don't like waiting around and worrying about whether or not it's gonna turn cancerous. could you please let me know what you think about these things? thank you!

Answer
Is your little ferret coughing or sneezing?  Ferrets don't usually cough, but sneeze sometimes as they can get allergies or colds just like we can.  In fact, they can catch the flu or a cold from us.  Ferret lax is fine to use but for better nutrients use ferret vite.  It's made by Marshall farms as well or Nutri-cal is even better but you would need Nutri-cal for ferrets as they carry it for dogs and cats too.  I agree that unless the growth gets larger or is rough or opens up I wouldn't worry too much as long as your ferret acts healthy.  Ferrets are so prone to cancer when they get older that usually if that is a cancerous tumor it will grow pretty quickly.

Let me know how things go.
Mary