Hair in mouth or airway obstruction?

[infernalancestry]

I'm what you would call ✨constantly paranoid✨ about my stinkers health, and I was wondering how you'd tell the difference between a drama queen wheezing over his shed fur annoying his throat, and something that's actually causing breathing difficulties?

One of my ferrets is the opposite of stoic and will take every opportunity to let me know if everything isn't perfect lmao

My usual course of action is to check his mouth/throat for anything visibly stuck in there, give him an egg, wait a bit, tiny bit of vaseline and water if he's still making funny breathing sounds, then once he takes his post egg binge nap I'll listen to his breathing in his sleep - if his asleep breathing is totally normal the conclusion is he's being dramatic (and over the past two years that's been right every time lol).

I don't want to put them through the stress of heimlich maneuvers or blockage protocols if it's not necessary, but I also don't want to potentially brush off something serious someday!

Any tips or personal experiences would be great, it seems most ferrets are the "suffer in silence" type so any amount of complaining would mean something is really wrong, but that is just SO not the case with this guy, the countless pointless vet visits have proven that by now 😅
(apologies if I don't reply, I still read and very much so appreciate any responses!)

[abbeytheferret6]

I think it is good to be in tune to little things that don't seem quite right. Wished our animals could tell us when they don't feel well. Their wellbeing depends on us to be perceptive.