Sorry about sending multiple messages today.
 
Re:  The excema survey:  Just finally reached this point in last week's
mail.  Excema often flares with allergies, as a result in the eastern U.S.
where rag weed had four record years in a row (until this year when parts
of it are seeing less pollen -- so far -- despite a huge number of plants),
many people who had not been previously diagnosed as having excema wound up
showing symptoms and some who have sporadic outbreaks with years or even
decades apart (like me) have been getting rashes or sores. (It can look
like boils or pimples if staph gets into the skin cracks.  That's what I
do.)  Take into account allergies other than possible ones to your pet.
What about your local pollens, shampoos, pet mess clean-up products? (I've
heard of a lot of folks having allergies to those.)
 
Re:  mess reduction.  We recently tried not only cleaning up (NOT with
ammonia, of course) after the waste deposited upon the slate, but also
marking it with a perfume the ferrets connect with me alone and the result
has been that we have had no poop or piddle there in two weeks.  (It also
pays to have another perfume that your ferrets can wear since the wearer
gains status.  This will help fight victims and the ill feel and be more
secure because stink is status.)  Ah, STINK IS STATUS, a motto never to be
ignored.
 
Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 1691]