Heather,
 
I'm not a vet but I've had a similar experience.  Elliott started scratching
terribly.  He was biting himself and I could hear him scratching all the time.
His coat became dry and brittle.
 
He did not have fleas or mites - we did skin scrapes.  He put him on anti-
biotics just in case it might be in an infection.  No change.  We tried
prednisone....no change.
 
Then my vet thought it might be a food allergy.  I was feeding Iam's Kitten
Proplan Kitten combo along with ferret chow.  He told me to cut out the
chicken and feed him Proplan Turkey/Barley.  He said if it was food it would
take about 3 weeks to notice a change.
 
Well, in 3 weeks, Elliott was a different ferret.  He gained weight, stopped
scratching, his coat became soft and beautiful again, and now he is a happy
ferret.  He eats Proplan Turkey/Barley and Iam's Lamb/Rice combo and I
haven't had any problems since then.
 
If your vet has done skin scrapes that are negative or if he has tried the
above and nothing is working, it's worth a shot to try to eliminate the
chicken and see if that's the problem.
 
MOST cat foods - and ferret foods have corn in them anyway.  Some more than
others, but if you read the Marshall Food bag, you'll see that it also has
corn in it.
 
BTW, I occasionally try giving him other foods such as Totally Ferret, but
he started scratching all over again.  We're waiting for TF to come in
different flavors - turkey or lamb - but until then he's doing fine on
turkey and lamb.
 
Debbie Riccio
WNYFLFA
Rochester, NY
[Posted in FML issue 1206]