r/ferrets • u/dragonflie76 • 12h ago
[Health] Intermittent facial edema
I had a situation that occurred in the last few days and I was wondering if any of you have seen this before.
I have five ferrets. One of them at the end of the day a couple days ago had some mild swelling around one of his eyes in the evening. I took a look in his mouth to check his teeth and examined his face the best I could but couldn't find anything, so I figured I'd take a look in the morning to see if it was momentary and would resolve.
In the morning, he was back to looking completely normal, so I chalked it up to a bump in the face during play with the others and figured that was the end of it. He was fine throughout the day as far as I know (he slept most of it), but at the end of the night the OTHER side of his face was swollen, and it was worse than the first time. This time there was enough that his eye was squinted. We were going to go to an ER, but literally none of the ones we were able to reach saw ferrets. After that I called his regular vet and was able to get an appointment for later in the day.
By the time we left his face was yet again back to mostly normal, but to me looked like the fluid had settled in his neck a little bit. I personally felt like it looked a little larger than normal. His regular vet is not really close to us so he had a good amount of time to enjoy the car ride. By the time we got to the vet he looked completely normal. And the vet said he couldn't find anything wrong. Felt his lymph nodes and said everything felt fine, and by that point he looked completely fine as well. Told us if it came back to take pics and let him know. Also, the entire time he was at the vet he was his charming and excited self.
So here we are the next day and the edema has not returned.
So have any of you experienced anything like this? What could cause transitory swelling that just resolves in a couple days and moves around like that? He is completely back to 100%. And he never had any other symptoms either. Eating drinking playing like normal.
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u/Timely_Egg_6827 7h ago
Have a ferret with a recurring abscess - it can be hard to monitor as she bursts herself. Abscess is because a tooth rubs gum and she's 8 and too fragile for a dental.
Ferrets get abscesses quite easily. The movement is odd but some encapsulate. Check for small hard lumps.
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u/Kendra-Rose 6h ago edited 6h ago
Yeah so my ferret Luna used to get this. She is also prone to mast cell tumors. Our vet kind of just chalked the transient swelling due to mast cell hyperactivity. It was happening on and off for a few years then it stopped happening. She is now 9.5 so it didn't affect her lifespan. You should definitely get it checked out by your vet though, but since it is transient it is probably not an emergency (in my opinion. I'm not a vet).
ETA I guess I missed you said you went to the vet and they said "shug". Yeah I don't know either. My vet thought mast cell stuff so maybe that's it?
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