>My darling Bruiser has a swollen face today.No pain,hard as a bone.It's
>under his eye to the front of his ear.Strangest thing.It's kinda like his
>jaw bone swelled.Not soft.We can pet his head where this is,and he just
>yawns (so mama can check his teeth!!!  Teeth look great!)  HELP!!  It just
>"appeared" today!  NO pain at all......
 
not sure if this is precisely what Bruiser has, but sounds similar.
 
about 2 or 3 years ago, I noticed Birch had a swollen cheek and took her to
the vet.  what it looks like was that her right cheek is noticeably bigger,
kinda like she's pouting on one side.  it was directly under the eye but
does not extend near the ear.  it wasn't soft, but I wouldn't call it like
bone, and doesn't seem to bother her at all when I push on it (not that I
push too hard).  the vet was not a ferret expert (she does see ferrets,
but does not specialize in them), and thought it probably is a tooth root
problem.  so they put her under anesthetic and cleaned all her teeth and
found nothing.  they decided to lance her cheek and she was put on Amoxilyn
for a week or so.  after the pus drained away she was fine.  it was an
abscess.
 
then a few months ago, the same thing occurred again.  I took her to my
local vet (also not specialist in ferrets) and she put Birch on Amoxilyn
for 10 days.  the swelling went down, and then a little later, it came back
again.  at that time she was due for her Lupron shot, so I showed Dr Taylor
at UofGuelph (a ferret expert) the problem.  he said it probably is a tooth
root problem (can't remember exactly what he said about it) and probably
need surgery to remove the tooth.  also it wasn't very urgent if she's
still eating fine so I can wait if I want.  I mention she was on Amoxilyn
for 10 days and he said that if it was an abscess, then 10 days is not long
enough, should be 30.  so I continued giving her amoxilyn for a bit, and
then one day, I came into my room and notice there was blood on her cheek
and it wasn't very swollen.  I guess it popped or something.  anyways, I
call my vet who said to try to keep the wound open so it could drain (that
was really hard, it closed in a day and I didn't have the nerve to break
it open) and keep her on the antibiotics as planned.  now she looks fine
again, and when I saw Dr Taylor again a month later (monthly Lupron), he
said that since the wound healed so fast it can't possibly be a tooth root
thing (apparently those things take a long time to heal), so I guess it is
an abscess again.
 
I don't know why she gets them, but I had asked the fml before and no one
replied, so I guess it isn't a common problem.  this is just my complete
experience with them.  hope it helps.  good luck.
 
// ***********************************************
// Selina, Birch, Dief, Sprite, Storm, Sand & Bear
// http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~ssiu
[Posted in FML issue 3290]