Regarding the fuzz-bucket that's DETERMINED not to have ear drops...
 
I have had good experience administering ear drops thusly:
Sit down at kitchen table, put bottle of medicine on kitchen table, unscrew
top of bottle and fill up eyedropper with medicine, scruff fuzz-bucket (she
should hang limp with her legs dangling above your lap), look her in the
eyes and tell her how wonderful she is (eye contact is important) or let her
kiss your lips (in stubborn cases apply linatone directly to your lips),
hold eyedropper an inch above her ear and gently squeeze the rubber end so
that a single droplet dangles from the end of the eyedropper, at this point
- quick now - put the end of the ear dropper right in the ear & pull it out.
The drop falls off in the ear.  Apply three drops per ear (at least this is
what we did when we were using an ivermectin solution from the vet) and then
- this is an important part - before unscruffing the little girl, massage
both her ears with your thumb and forefinger.  You will hear the medicine
squishing around in there.  When you do unscruff her she will shake her
head, but not much will come out because you massaged it down a bit...  You
will become so good at this that you will fool even the most stubborn ferret
into many more painless ear drop applications...
 
More ferret math: (I believe this also counts - pardon the pun)
 
8 beasts - 16 ears - 3 drops per ear twice a day for two weeks - 3 drops
per ear three times per week for six weeks.......THAT'S OVER TWO THOUSAND
TWO HUNDRED DROPS !!!!!!!!!  (and at least 2100 of those were painless)
 
Charlene
[Posted in FML issue 1278]