Our vet has had us use a cotton swab with a bit of plain Listerine on the sores. It surprised me but it did give the ferrets some relief and those sores did heal faster than the ones we could not reach without gagging him. Well, unless it has changed the feline z/d has chicken as the source of protein BUT the proteins are broken down into amino acids as much as possible. Since allergies and many intolerances tend to be triggered by protein complexes this means that it usually can't set off an allergic reaction or set off many intolerances. <http://www.hillspet.com/hillspet/products/productDetails.hjsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441760715> >This condition is usually an abnormal response to a specific >protein in food. OnlyPrescription Diet(r) z/d(r) pet food is >formulated with Hill's Hydrolyzed Protein System(TM), a process >that eliminates animal intact proteins and significantly reduces >the possibility of an adverse reaction to food. ... >Hydrolyzed Highly digestible animal protein source with an average >molecular weight <3,000 daltons; no intact animal protein. Yes, ferrets survive well on it when it is needed. Think of it as sort of being pre-digested down to components of animal protein that are very accessible as nutrients but are not in the complex configurations that were recognized as allergens. 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 6222]