For the past two months, my ferret Liam has had a small white pustule in his mouth. It's on the top right side, back where his throat starts (and is generally only visible when he yawns). It started out as a tiny object, looking like a small sore, and grew to about 1.5mm in diameter (estimate, obvious. Calipers won't fit in his mouth. :) The object was off-white in colour, and fairly flat at the surface. It remained at about 1.5mm until about a week ago. Before this, my vet wasn't too worried about it as it wasn't changing, and he would prefer not to touch it due to its rather difficult location. So for the past two months I've just been keeping an eye out on it. Until, as I said, a week ago. It has grown in size, and has been accompanied by inflammation on both sides of his mouth (in the soft tissue right behind his molars, on the sides). The pustule is now more rounded, and about 2mm or 2.5mm in diameter. The colour also changed from off-white to off-white with a reddish tinge (in fact, it looked like a number of capillaries in a membrane covering the pustule). It is now a yellowish-white colour. Both sides of his mouth remain swollen. My vet described everything as (I hope I'm getting this right) "bilateral faucitis accompanied by a pustule". As my vet has only limited experience with ferrets, he has referred me to a friend of his who deals primarily in exotic animals, and has much more experience. Since I can't get to see this vet until Wednesday though, I though I would post to the list and ask for opinions. Any ideas? I should also note that the inflammation started around the same time that I took Liam outside to really enjoy the summer weather which has decided to grace the Toronto area (finally). Is it possible that his rooting around in the soil outside (just in my front yard) could be the cause? Even if this is the cause, the pustule has still been there much longer, so I'm still wondering about that. Bryan Archell [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 1582]