Add these to the possible causes of projectile vomiting already mentioned (and I am sure there are more): 1. Injury 2. Small intestine malformation 3. Infection (Have seen it with an ascending GI tract infection that caused sores; specific cause never determined. The individual was already an IBD patient.) 4. A growth When a ferret vomits sure that it is actual vomit (Sniff for stomach acid, for instance.) rather than regurgitated food that could have been trapped in the esophagus by MegaE. Forgive me, but I don't recall details. I have been so busy recently that I actually sometimes can't even get to much of my private mail for over a day or two, and I have some things that have been waiting longer. With mouth ulcers always check the kidneys, too. Kidney disease is among the things can cause mouth ulcers in ferrets, sometimes before it shows up on blood testing. For ulcers: ask for the manufacturer's liquid prep of Carafate. Some vets carry it now, and pretty much all U.S. pharmacies do as an affordable prescription med. Shooting domestic animals is illegal in many locations. What is typically advised is to call animal control or sometimes police. I am so glad that idiot's neighbor knew animals so much better than she did so the ferret was saved. Shooting otters also is illegal in many locations. For which office does relocation in any state ask that area's state legislator's office to look it up for you. BTW, people in the NW are being asked to keep their cats indoors and to not dispose of cat litter outdoors. Toxoplasmosis rapidly kills otters through brain infection and the numbers lost quite high now. If memory serves the most recent study on this is yet again research which the actress Betty White (who has done a lot to help the advance of veterinary knowledge) funded fully through the Morris Animal Foundation. Many thanks to that sweet woman! (I miss the years when Steve and I could do a lot for MAF, back when Sarah was there...) The caution may well apply in areas with different otter species. For example, we live in a little and aging condo in the Ridge and Swamp ecological zone of N.J. so the area has a lot of wooded places that can not be built on, allowing wildlife. In our general area we have seen some mink, fewer otters, rarely martins, and on really rare occasion a fisher passing through (as per pers coms with the people who safely trap and relocate mustelids for FG&W here). We have smelled (but not seen) the otters in a local preserve a few years back, seen multiple minks, seen a few weasels, seen one martin taking it's time very clearly in an area maybe 10 miles away, and have seen what was either a small female fisher or a large martin (but it was moving too fast to get a clear view) through our years here. No wolverines. Our loss... (many eastern coyotes, many deer, many wild turkeys, too danged many Canadian Geese often, some ducks, occasional egret, rare bald eagles passing through to the coast, many great blue herons, vultures, plenty of crows, bluebirds in nearby areas, rabbits, ground hogs, skunks, foxes, newts, many brown water snakes (not moccasins here), a rare rattler, many frogs and toads, snapping turtles, box tortoises, mud turtles, also some plants that are currently in trouble, largely from building and from run-off pH changes caused by gardening applications, etc. I haven't been stable enough on my ankles to walk the soggy woods areas in a few years, though.) -- Sukie (not a vet) Ferret Health List co-moderator http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth FHL Archives fan http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ replacing http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org International Ferret Congress advisor http://www.ferretcongress.org [Posted in FML issue 5174]