PTX, have you figured out where the short is yet? I know I'm getting in on this late but if you just go ahead and disconnect everything and put a fuse in, if you don't blow the fuse look for the hot wire, hook up the fixture at that point and the find the next hot.
It is simpler when you don't know how the circuit runs to disconnect everything and then hot up the circuit. If everything is connected and the shortis in the last run you waste a lot of fuses.
I don't think a loose wire is going to blow fuses.