When we had a ferret who got oral abscesses due to kidney disease the vet would have us hold a swab with a little plain Listerine against it and that surprised me by giving him a decent amount of relief and it seemed to help with healing. If your vet or the manufacturers don't know about the pain gels, and if looking up ingredients doesn't help find if those oral pain relievers are safe you can try ASPCA Animal Poison Control. It will cost you something like $55 to do so, though, Lin. Not finding the answer in the FHL Archives, I sought out some places for you to check. This might be useful: http://www.drugs.com/vet/ http://www.anbesol.com/ http://www.orajel.com/ may have contact info or may have an ingredients list, or both Poison Control and helpful poisoning prevention references: ASPCA Animal Poison Control: http://www.napcc.aspca.org Angell Memorial's ASPCA Poison Control: <http://www.mspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=poisoncontrolhotline_pagewrapperlanding> Poisons to avoid: http://www.avonvets.co.uk/2ndyr_hands/Poisons.html You are smart to be cautious, Lin. There are a number of over the counter human meds, for example Tylenol which destroys their livers in just small amounts, which will quickly injure or kill ferrets. Here is a Veterinary Practice News piece on treating oral pain: <http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/vet-practice-news-columns/dental-edge/identifying-and-treating-oral-pain.aspx> I don't have time to check it for you, sadly. Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html [Posted in FML 6174]
