>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]