Hi, FMLers! I am mostly a lurker. I have owned fuzzies for only about 6 months (but am a research scientist, so have been doing a lot of reading about them...I like to use FML and the experienced owners/moderators here as one of my sources). I am hoping that some of you that have been owning for years can help me with a situation we are having with my "business". I have an old female, Stella (stinkerbell, as I like to call her), who is 5 next month (adopted in November from a family member who "didn't have time" and was keeping her caged =(. We got two new kits in January. Chewy is about 7 months old now, and Grubby is about 5 months now. Stella was healthy and fat as can be when we first brought her home and continuing into January. We brought Chewy and Grubby home and isolated them from Stella for at least the first week. All looked well, so they were allowed brief interactions (we still keep Stella separate as the youngins are far too rough with her, and she is tiny - less than half their size - and old). Shortly after, Chewy started showing signs of ECE. Took him to the vet, she confirmed. Grubby and Stella soon followed. The vet (who is *very* ferret knowledgeable, 20+ years of experience, treats ~1500 fuzzies a year, so my babies are getting good care), kept a close eye on them. They were getting checkups almost weekly or every other week. Everyone came through it fine. Chewy had a cough since we brought him home. We thought it might have been his prior bedding (he was being kept in some sort of shavings that looked like wood). After several visits to the vet, x-rays, benadryl, antibiotics, and finally a cortisone shot, she ruled that it was probably allergies or asthma, and he is now on a low dose of pred 3x per week to keep his coughing/congestion under control and benadryl as needed. We thought this was an isolated case with only Chewy, but in the past couple of weeks, Stella has had congestion and a cough too, and Grubby has been doing some *very violent* sneezing. Sometimes, it's so bad that he's almost yelping =(. I was afraid this might be something secondary to their ECE infections, so of course, took them to the vet. When we take them into the vet, the lung x-rays are clear and the CBC is normal (so no obvious signs of infection). No fever, loss of appetite, pale gums, lethargy etc etc. Behaviorally, they are totally normal, other than the respiratory symptoms. I am starting to think it is something in the environment of our home, but I am at a loss as to exactly what it could be. There was some mold discovered in our closet in the bedroom (I live in Florida, so it's prevalent here), and I had the apartment managers come out and take care of that. We have also discovered in the past couple of weeks that there is a small population of some sort of bugs living under the baseboard of our bathroom. Can't pin-point exactly what they are. they are tinier than a pin head and can jump, but they don't look like house fleas. My kids all get advantage and have for months (I though it might be that but Stella's been getting the advantage since before this all came about). The kids used to play in there (it's ferret-proofed), but since we found out about that, we have called the apartment managers out again to spray and we no longer allow the furkids in there, either. We also dumped their rice box, which used to be on the screened back porch, and I plan on getting a new one and keeping it indoors, just in case something small/microscopic was living in there. I'm also thinking about getting a dehumidifier for our house to keep the humidity at/below 50% to control mold and dust mites. I've developed asthma in the last couple of years, so that's good for my own health, too. My question (after all that loooong information) is: have any of you had experience with anything like this? Any suggestions I can discuss with my vet? Any ideas/help would be greatly appreciated. I can't stand to see my furkids suffer, but am at a loss as to what I can do other than load them up with steroids and benadryl, which I would prefer not to do, and I am sure the vet wouldn't either =(. I'm taking them all in again next Monday night for examinations. Hoping to have some ideas by then. Thank you all so much! Private as well as public responses are welcome. Rachael [Posted in FML 5547]