To Kelleen:
 
One of my ferrets had demodectic mange once; my understanding of this little
bug is that it is opportunistic rather than contagious - this means all of
us have this bug on our body (yes, we humans too) and when the animal's
system is compromised, the mites "take over" and a scab-like crust develops.
 
If my understanding of this mite is correct - it would seem very unusual
that ALL of your ferrets have it.  And I found that topical treatments did
not help.  I tried several different dips, antibiotics, ointments, etc, and
while they somewhat kept it under control, they did not work to get rid of
the mange.
 
I had to scrub little Mickey's chin and toes everyday with a toothbrush to
get the crust off.  He had this for months.  Then Mickey developed
insulinoma, and I started him on Brewer's yeast (which has Vit B12 in it).
He got 1/8 tsp once a day in chicken baby food (BY has chromium in it which
is an insulin-regulator).  After 3 weeks on BY, the mange cleared up and he
was never bothered with it again.
 
Demodex looks like little "cigars" under the microscope - Mickey was scraped
4 times by 4 different vets, because after the 1st vet made the diagnosis,
none of the others believed me - it's that rare in ferrets.
 
One more thing Kelleen - this is part of being a shelter - there's no way
around it - when one decides to operate an animal shelter, whether it's for
dogs, cats, or ferrets, there is always the risk of exposing your own
animals as well as shelter animals to "unknowns".  One cannot count on all
animals admitted to one's shelter as being healthy and in the best of shape.
 
You run the risk of mites, fleas, colds, ECE, feline leukemia (if you have a
cat shelter), Parvo (dog shelter), etc.  Some ferrets become permanent
residents because they may require specialized care - you will always spend
more money than you take in unless you have lots of fund raisers - ferret
shows, garage sales, raffles.  Shelters don't MAKE money - they SPEND it.
 
While many vets are willing to work with shelters and offer discounts, we
can't really expect them to see all our shelter animals for free - time is
money - if the vet willing to see all those ferrets for only $17, that was
quite a deal - OTOH, if s/he wanted $17 for EACH ferret, I can understand
your hesitation to go back - then again, if you only use him/her for cheap
vaccinations and nothing else, why would you expect him/her to cut you
any kind of a deal?
 
It seems it would have been better to handle the appointment a little
differently: 1) you could have NOT cleaned the ears and made the appointment
for that afternoon; or 2) if you had already cleaned the ears, then you
could have opted for an appointment the following day - just because the
receptionist told you to come in after you explained you had cleaned the
ears, didn't mean you HAD to go in that day.  We are the ones in control of
our pets and shelter animals, and need to remain so.
 
Good luck with the mites!
 
Debbie Riccio
WNYFLFA
Rochester, NY
[Posted in FML issue 1553]