I have a new boy staying at my house for a while... He is the newest of the rescues for the Ferret Aid Society. Earlier today Randy received a call from a person wanting to surrender an older ferret to FAS, apparently this ferret had not eaten for the last few days, his poops were a small amount of slime (if any), he was grinding his teeth, pawing his mouth and biting anyone who got near to him. Needless to say pickup was arranged and "Knuckles" was brought to our vet. Knuckles was dehydrated, very emaciated, showing signs of ulcers and has the worst dental hygiene that I have ever seen in a ferret. He was given sub-q to revive him and on sulcrafate to help the ulcers. He is now at my house being goo'ed every couple hours to regain weight and hopefully stabalize him. However, I need suggestions to help me get him over then next few days while I'm trying to put some weight on him.... I believe the underlining cause of all of Knuckle's problems are his teeth. When you look at his mouth, his gums are bleeding and his teeth look like hard pieces of blue cheese (very gross) and you can smell his breath from a room away. Obviously he will need to have some major dental surgery to correct the problem and give the boy a hope for the future, but right now he is too weak to consider this option. Does anyone have any suggestions to help Knuckle's mouth not hurt as much while I put weight on him and FAS starts to raise money for his surgery? I have never dealt with rotten teeth before, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much, Paige Townsend Ferret Aid Society www.ferretaid.org [Posted in FML issue 3159]