Over the years I have used plenty of different strategies to try to clean the ferrets' ears quickly and without a lot of fussing from the ferrets. They hate having the ears cleaned, even after doing it every two weeks for years they never seemed to get used to the whole ordeal. I must admit, eventually I stopped doing it so often because it was such a pain. Anyway, I used to use a flushing/foaming solution and squirt it in, then clean, but then I started just cleaning with dry q-tips and have had much better results. For one, the ferrets aren't as alarmed as they are when liquid or wet q-tips go in their ears, and I get a lot more gunk out. Then, if I suspect mites, I apply a mite solution such as Tresaderm and massage their ears, and do this for a couple days in a row. Also, I delve quite deep into their ears, I don't just stay on the outside! I have had very satisfying results using this technique and the other day, I got such a big chunk out of Barry's ear that he looked at me, sort of surprised, as if he could all of a sudden hear better! So that's my strategy, hope it helps someone out there! Cheryl [Posted in FML 6239]