Lisette, thank you for sharing your experience with Cheyenne. I know it must very difficult to realize you should have checked his mouth and did not. Even harder to admit this oversight to all of us. Please know I will never forget your experience, and checking my ferrets mouth will be on my list of regular things to do. For all of you that post your experiences with accidents, escapes, illness, thank you. I feel your sadness, I hope to always remember. I also *overlooked* an obvious late last year. Our dog Ria had a benign growth removed from her rectum. Two weeks later she had spells when she was in obvious pain, off her food, coughing. Ex-ray, lung wash, culture showed nothing. She was put on a round of antibiotics with little improvement. Coughing, low grade fever, occasional obvious pain continued. She was seen by 2 vets over 3 weeks. On the second to the last visit I casually mentioned her first real symptom was she had *lost* her bark almost 3 months ago. The vet said we need another ex-ray, but the look on his face said what I did not want to hear. She was kindly put to sleep a week later. Had I mentioned the hoarseness earlier, perhaps I could have spared her some pain. I don't know. The vet tried to console me , explaining this was rare, rapid, and nothing could be done. I don't blame this vet, I blame ME for not communicating for my Ria. This taught me to make sure I describe ALL symptoms, no matter how insignifigint they may seem, how long ago they were first noticed, etc. Perhaps this will help someone like Lisette helped me. In Touch, Ardith mailto:[log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 3883]