When the person posted before NOTHING was said about cooking the aloe vera, just giving it and raw aloe vera IS poisonous to members of Carnivora. See this expert reference: > http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/poison-control/Plants/aloe.aspx Whether cooking alters the saponins in aloe vera, I don't know. It does for some safer types of saponins in some food items, and streaming or hot soaking is used for saponins on other foods items, but what works and how well varies among those versions. Aloe vera veterinary shampoos that are not ingested can be soothing and safely used, but ingestion is a totally different matter, certainly for the raw version. Personally, I would not risk it, cooked or raw for ingestion at this stage. It makes more sense if a band-aid approach is to be used to figure out what component is controlling inflammation and provide it in a safer medium. BTW, one resource says that aloe vera contains salicylic acid. I have no idea if it actually does though some plants including some food ones do in various levels, but if so and if the ferret may actually needs an aspirin chemical relative to control inflammation then it probably makes sense to figure out WHY the ferret bloats and tackle the root of the problem rather than using a band-aid approach. 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/ http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html all ferret topics: http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html "All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow." (2010, Steve Crandall) On change for its own sake: "You can go really fast if you just jump off the cliff." (2010, Steve Crandall) [Posted in FML 7251]