Hi Everybody - We had quite an exciting night on Wednesday. We'd been out late after work shopping, so I got home at 7 and went to let the ferrets out. (We moved back from free roam all day to just when we are home since litter habits had drastically deteriorated.) My smallest female, Sonnet, wouldn't come out. When I reached in to wake her, I saw her ear was completely crusted over. She was unable to walk much at all, her balance was far gone. I made her a meal of baby food, and she used the litterbox, then we went off to the emergency vet. Two and a half anxious hours later, we determined that she had an ear infection and ear mites. We'd never had a problem with ear mites before - never even a suggestion that the group had them. I've never been so happy to hear the words 'vicious infection' before. Sonnet had been a little lethargic for a day or two, just not showing up as often, but she doesn't like to play so much with the others, so I hadn't given it a lot of thought. My husband said she'd looked fine the night before when we put her to bed, so it pretty much exploded overnight. I thought I might be loosing her. She's now eating 3-4 meals of baby food a day (she's eating eagerly, but I don't think she likes walking to the food bowl, so I'm just being careful), and is on ear mite medication and antibiotics. She hates them both, and is starting to put up more of a fight (I'm still at the stage where I think this is a good thing.) It's so pathetic to see her staggering around like a drunk. She falls whenever she tries to get into the litterbox, but there's no way she'd not go in it. The vet says she'll get used to walking, even if one inner ear has been destroyed, although it's not yet clear if it has or not. Has anyone experienced a serious ear infection like this - I searched the archives and saw only one reference to one years ago. I'd have thought after reading the FML for so long that nothing new would hit me. If anyone knows of a ferret who has recovered from severe inner ear infection and how their walking was affected, I'd appreciate knowing what to expect. Anyhow, I'm pretty confident she'll be fine. She's sleeping all the time, except when I wake her up to eat, but she's not worsening, and she is eating and drinking well. It was a very scary night though. Mornings are very long now, treating 6 ferrets, one cat and two dogs for ear mites. So much for getting up 20 minutes before I walk out the door. Practice for having children I suppose. Best wishes to all - Wendy and the six crayfish dancers (one of whom is on sick leave) PS - I have one dog who doesn't like Sonnet - Sonnet used to bite her nose and now always gets a growl when she gets too close (although she would never ever bite or hurt her). Well last night, Sonnet was staggering around looking for somewhere to sleep and she ran into this dog, who must have realized she was sick because she allowed Sonnet to walk right up to her and sniff and rest. [Posted in FML issue 3113]