First of all, a big "thank you" to all who emailed me directly with your cares, concerns, positive thoughts, and suggestions about this very odd and mysterious skin condition Charlie has developed. Yesterday I took him back to the vet's office for a thorough skin biopsy (skin samples were taken from 3 places), CBC panel, and new medication (that will hopefully help manage the reddened, inflamed, flakey skin and fungus-like growths on his paws and the splotchy, raw red patches around his mouth). I have a very knowledgeable doc here - Dr. Cathy Johnson-Delaney, and even she is perplexed but offered a few suggestions of conditions it might be (which I cannot remember the names of but needless to say they are *not* common illnesses). She feels strongly that this is some type of auto-immune infection and has ruled out canine distemper, pemphigus, and cutaneous lymphoma based on all of the presenting symptoms. The biopsy tissues will be sent to a ferret expert at NW Zoological (local) as a RUSH so I/we will hopefully know something very soon. In the meantime, Charlie's temporary "treatment" (management) will be a combination of doxycycline (orally), children's benadryl (to manage itching), Optomega 3-6-9 liquid (to boost immunes by providing essential vitamins A, C, & E and omega fatty acids), pepcid a/c (to keep tummy under control), topical vit A to encourage rash healing, Healx soother ointment (topical) as anti-inflammatory and analgesic, and neosporin on sutures where skin patches were taken for the biopsy. WHEW!!! I will certainly share the lab results once I receive them and if anyone knows of a ferret suffering from a similar condition, PLEASE contact me so we can share information and photos. I welcome anything you can share and am also happy to share what I've learned so that other ferrets can be properly treated. Hopefully we can put a name on this mysterious "thing"! Thank you again for the thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes. Charlie remains in good spirits and is eating and drinking normally despite the painful looking paws so that's a good sign! :-) Jennifer & Sir Charles [Posted in FML 6475]