Hello everybody, Thanks so much for all the advice you sent me regarding the mark on Jitterbug (which turned out to be a simple bug bite - it disappeared in 24 hours). Jitterbug is back to her old self again. Unfortunately she has always had a problem with dry itchy skin and this summer looks to be drier than ever. I have put a humidifyier in her room, but she is still scratching like crazy. She absolutely does not have fleas (She has had this dry skin thing for years and she has been checked for fleas). I repeat: SHE DOES NOT HAVE FLEAS. Does anyone know how to help a ferret with dry skin? It doesn't seem possible to use a moisturizer on her because of all the hair, but she itches so badly she sometimes breaks the skin. I love her dearly and don't want her to be uncomfortable. I have thought of bathing her with a couple of drops of Canola oil in the water - but in general I hardly ever bathe her to avoid drying out her skin any worse. If anyone has any suggestions for the dry skin please e- mail me directly at [log in to unmask] As a little background, Jitterbug is an adrenal ferret. She has not had surgery to remove her adrenal gland for several reasons. She is probably 5 years old (I got her as a rescue) and has gone through unnecessary surgery before (they thought she had a blockage - nothing was there) and had an unusually hard time recovering. She had to be hand feed for months and I swear she gave up her will to live. Anyway I don't want to put her through that again. There are also unfortunate financial considerations which would make it impossible for me to pay for surgery right now. All that combined with the seeming lack of qualified ferret vets in Los Angeles have led to my decision not to get her the surgery. I don't know if this is possibly connected to her dry skin, but I thought I should mention it. As for the vet in Los Angeles - I still have not found one. All the lists and webb sites listing vets seem to have outdated information for Los Angeles. Many on the vets are no longer at the clinics as listed or are specialists (such as Dr. Lavac who is a heart specialist and does not see ferrets for general office visits). The few vets I have found seem woefully inexperienced. Oh, how I miss New York! Thanks again to everyone who cared enough to e-mail me. If I did not reply to you individually a few of my e-mails were sent back to me (I am not sure why). But I appreciated all the advice. Sincerely, Rebecca ([log in to unmask]) [Posted in FML issue 2285]