I noticed this afternoon that Rocky's cheek was a little swollen. I called my vet but he was dealing with another emergency and wouldn't be able to see Rocky. I called my back-up vet and she only works on Sat. I wanted him seen tonight so I called a third vet and luckily they could see him. Needless to say that he has an abscess. The vet couldn't see anything inside his mouth so hopefully we caught it early. So here is the question: for anyone who has experienced this: is there any thing I should be looking for or worry about. He literally squeezed me in so I didn't get to ask many questions? I will call my regular vet later. But any advice would be welcome. Thanks

First things first, you need x-rays done to rule out tooth involvement. You aren't going to be able to tell anything by just looking in the mouth. If there is tooth involvement, they will need to extract the tooth, lance, then drain and flush the abscess and have them culture what they drain. Without tooth involvement, they'll still need to lance,drain and flush, send off for a culture, then go home with antibiotics and pain meds. Both Meds are VERY important. See if you can get Clavamox, TMS, anything but Baytril.

You need to have this taken care of sooner rather than later. Abscesses can be dangerous because of the risk of infection spreading.

Rocky is on an antibiotic and pain meds. He is doing better. The swelling is almost gone and he doesn't seem to be in to much pain or any at all. You can touch the area and he doesn't seem to mind. I really had to look hard this morning to see the swelling. I was able to see my vet Sat. and will call him this week about an x-ray. He is eating both soft and hard food (ate a pine nut last night and made his happy noise while eating), taking his meds like a champ and acting normal (and yes I know they will mask illnesses). I called Val and got some wonderful advice. These are pics that I took yesterday with my iPhone.

Good, I'm glad to hear you contacted Val. Yay! :)