To Kelleen: One of my ferrets had demodectic mange once; my understanding of this little bug is that it is opportunistic rather than contagious - this means all of us have this bug on our body (yes, we humans too) and when the animal's system is compromised, the mites "take over" and a scab-like crust develops. If my understanding of this mite is correct - it would seem very unusual that ALL of your ferrets have it. And I found that topical treatments did not help. I tried several different dips, antibiotics, ointments, etc, and while they somewhat kept it under control, they did not work to get rid of the mange. I had to scrub little Mickey's chin and toes everyday with a toothbrush to get the crust off. He had this for months. Then Mickey developed insulinoma, and I started him on Brewer's yeast (which has Vit B12 in it). He got 1/8 tsp once a day in chicken baby food (BY has chromium in it which is an insulin-regulator). After 3 weeks on BY, the mange cleared up and he was never bothered with it again. Demodex looks like little "cigars" under the microscope - Mickey was scraped 4 times by 4 different vets, because after the 1st vet made the diagnosis, none of the others believed me - it's that rare in ferrets. One more thing Kelleen - this is part of being a shelter - there's no way around it - when one decides to operate an animal shelter, whether it's for dogs, cats, or ferrets, there is always the risk of exposing your own animals as well as shelter animals to "unknowns". One cannot count on all animals admitted to one's shelter as being healthy and in the best of shape. You run the risk of mites, fleas, colds, ECE, feline leukemia (if you have a cat shelter), Parvo (dog shelter), etc. Some ferrets become permanent residents because they may require specialized care - you will always spend more money than you take in unless you have lots of fund raisers - ferret shows, garage sales, raffles. Shelters don't MAKE money - they SPEND it. While many vets are willing to work with shelters and offer discounts, we can't really expect them to see all our shelter animals for free - time is money - if the vet willing to see all those ferrets for only $17, that was quite a deal - OTOH, if s/he wanted $17 for EACH ferret, I can understand your hesitation to go back - then again, if you only use him/her for cheap vaccinations and nothing else, why would you expect him/her to cut you any kind of a deal? It seems it would have been better to handle the appointment a little differently: 1) you could have NOT cleaned the ears and made the appointment for that afternoon; or 2) if you had already cleaned the ears, then you could have opted for an appointment the following day - just because the receptionist told you to come in after you explained you had cleaned the ears, didn't mean you HAD to go in that day. We are the ones in control of our pets and shelter animals, and need to remain so. Good luck with the mites! Debbie Riccio WNYFLFA Rochester, NY [Posted in FML issue 1553]