In relation to alternative medication Ela writes:
>You'll probably want to run this dosage information by your vet., to get
>his/her input, Dona.
 
Actually, with more and more becoming known about ways in which alternative
medications (like standard medications) might affect things like clotting,
or have interactions with other meds it is essential that your vet always
knows what alternative meds, over-the-counter meds, and even nutritional
supplements are being given.  (Also true for your physician and include
things like tobacco smoke or heavy drinking.) Bring them to the visit so
that the contents can be read.  Vets have less money for things like
references so might not have a copy of the _Physician's desk reference
of Herbal Medications_ handy.  It may come down to you looking up
interactions.  Also, don't forget that as with newer standard meds there
can be interactions which haven't been documented until after publication
of the reference.  The NY Times Science Section has had several articles in
recent years on such interactions so you might want to look in that paper's
site as part of your learning.  Alternative meds, like standard meds, have
to be strong enough to have an effect, but the problem exists that if
something is strong then it might affect other aspects of health as well so
you just have to know the situations in which that strength poses a problem
for any type of medication.  I knew someone who killed her ferret with an
herbal med post-op because she figured it was worth experimenting but
didn't know that it promoted bleeding, so the vet did a fine job and then
she bled the ferret to death with her "remedy" after it got home.
 
Beheading seems drastic, Randy.  How about exposed roots for exposed
roots? :-)  That person is clearly someone who needs to be shut down,
fined strongly and maybe plopped in a cell for a while.  Like the backyard
breeder whose deformed and very inbred kit was nursed by a shelter before
dying extremely young of it's deformities, and like the fake "shelter"
which was really an animal collector closed down in southern N.J. (with
Kim and KiSta being the GOOD guys -- saving as many of the ferrets as could
be saved after they were turned over to them by authorities who shut down
the collector), and like so many more, the absolutely worst cases of abuse
tend to involve small operations and all too often they get off the hook
too easily.
 
Never forget to learn more about ferrets at:
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index/html
http://www.ferretcentral.org
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc
and other fine sources -- both before they join your family and afterward.
[Posted in FML issue 3084]