I also agree that vet students NEED to learn more about ferrets.  Some
of you may remember that I posted a month or so ago about the things I
had learned about ferrets so far in vet school; I have included my notes
again in Part 2 of this post.  I know for a fact that I know far more
about ferrets than the woman who was teaching the class.  She had 50
minutes to talk about 5 small pets and left 1 minute, yes seriously, to
talk about ferrets.  You should have heard the noise that came out of my
mouth when she said ferrets don't need very much space!!  I questioned
her on it at the end of class but she denied that she said it.  I thought
perhaps that I had misunderstood but was assured by my classmates that
I did hear correctly.  Additionally, the textbook she recommended for
ferrets was certainly not the most detailed one available on the market.
 
Things are a bit different for me because I go to vet school in Melbourne
(Australia) and the ferret community is just not as prominent here as it
is in N. America.  For example, we had a wildlife vet come in to talk to
us for 4 lectures about what happens if an echidna, platypus, kangaroo,
emu, or koala comes into your clinic.  We have now been taught more
about handling and treating these animals than we have been taught about
ferrets.  You might say, well, in Australia this is a likely situation,
but in Canada we are not given this many lectures on how to handle an
injured moose, owl, snowshoe hare, or coyote that comes into our
clinics!!  This vet now deals with exotics in addition to his wildlife
work.  (Side note: When I asked him what kinds of conditions he has seen
in ferrets I was told mange and the occasional blockage.  He has never
seen any adrenal or insulinoma ferrets.)
 
Because I don't remember the exact details of the story, I will not
mention names here but there is a prominent ferret vet in the US that
strongly encouraged her vet school to introduce more lectures on ferrets
into the curriculum and succeeded.  I have been meaning to write her to
get her advice on how to do this...but this will have to wait until the
end of exams (this week!!!!, okay, I'm a little happy about this!!!)  Of
course, if this vet is reading my post perhaps she could email me and/or
the FML to provide some good advice on how she recommends us vet students
go about this successfully!
 
Shelby "Chub" Kimura
not a vet...yet
[Posted in FML issue 3970]