I'm writing to this list to see if anyone has ever encountered the same
skin condition that one of our ferrets seems to have right now.  Our vets
in this area don't seem to have a lot of knowledge about ferrets (my
husband and I knew as much and in some cases more than some of the vets
where we take our fuzzies) and I wondered if anyone else has encountered
this condition....
 
Scrappy is our youngest at about 2 years old now and he's developed some
kind of skin condition that I can only describe as tiny little scabs all
over his body.  His feet and ears (the ears I suppose could be a
side-condition) are very red also, and he does a LOT of scratching.
Scrappy has 4 other buddies (Slinky, Foxxy, Otto, and Loki) who all live
in the same cage and don't have any problems with their skin...so I don't
think it's anything contageous or any kind of bug-bites.
 
We took Scrappy to the Vet who said he must have some kind of skin
infection and gave us some antibiotics to give him twice a day for 10 days.
(He actually LOVED his medicine, which was a nice surprise!) After about 2
days, his skin was clearing up and looking really good, but after that it
only went down-hill again.  In the area where his toe nails grow out of his
foot there's a dark red color (which the vet said was a sign of infection).
He also has a lot of scabs under his jawline and chin, and where his
whiskers grow out of his skin.  All over his body you can see these little
rusty looking spots...on his back, stomach, head, neck, arms, shoulders...
everywhere!  They are obviously itchy because the poor little guy spends
way more time than usual scratching.
 
I plan on calling the vet back for Round Two, but thought it might be a
good idea to post this and see if anyone else had any suggestions.  I'd
appreciate any help or information anyone could give, even if it was to
say "yes, I've seen this before!" Thanks in advance.
 
Amy & Robb Gonyer
Slinky, Foxxy, Otto, Loki, and (Itchy) Scrappy
[Posted in FML issue 3129]