>Ferret Friends: I am sending you a copy of what I sent to another
>gal, who took the time to try and make me feel "better" about a
>veterinarian's "lack" of credentials, to treat exotics.  She gave me
>some good information that she had, but of course, for Kim - it is
>"never" enough.
>
>I am very grateful for what she shared with me - and I send a big public
>"thanks" to her!!  I decided to take "on" the AMA - VCA - and any other
>"chain" vet clinics - and gosh, I think the entire vet community.....
 
I'm confused-what does being a "chain" clinic have to do with vets
who are inexperienced with ferrets saying that they are, in fact,
experienced?
 
I am a vet tech at a VCA hospital; we are part of a corporation, or
"chain," if you will, but each clinic is run by a different medical
director, has different vets with different experiences, and none of the
VCAs in my area (MA) claims to have expertise that they don't.  (Not to
say there aren't bad VCA vets, too, but I will tell you that the system
is set up to closely monitor vets in our system!)
 
If you call VCA Westboro in MA, you will be told that there are three
vets there who see ferrets, and 2 who don't (they have been my vets
since before I was a tech, back when Dr. Innis was still there).  My own
hospital currently does not have a DVM who is an experienced, fulltime
ferret GP, but we have a boarded surgeon who has extensive experience
with ferret adrenalectomies, partial pancreatectomies and insulinoma
removals, splenectomies, exploratories.  We also have a very parttime vet
(since her kids were born) who will see healthy ferrets who have been her
patients for years (she doesn't want to be the only experienced clinician
on the case for a sickie b/c she feels it would be unfair to the patient
and client due to her limited schedule and lack of support in that area
from her fellow DVMs).
 
We have a new vet on staff who is wonderful and has ferret experience as
a tech and the daughter of a vet, who is learning about them and who is
getting experience with my personal ferrets so that one day she will be
qualified as a ferret-experienced doctor, but who would by no means call
herself a ferret vet right now.
 
I think you have to be careful generalizing that just because a clinic
is affiliated with a corporation, that you are going to get inferior
care or liars taking care of your pets.  Every clinic is different, and
you will always have the disreputable people who would rather say they
know what they're doing rather than refer you elsewhere; however, my
experience at VCA has actually been that BECAUSE we are affiliated with
other VCAs (though each hospital is still in a huge sense privately run),
you are MORE LIKELY to be referred out to a different vet (yes, another
VCA would probably be the first recommendation) who has appropriate
experience because they have a network or hospitals they are familiar
with they can refer you to.
 
By all means, we should do what we can to weed out the disreputable vets
who take in whatever patients they can regardless of what they truly
know, but we should be careful about making assumptions and generalizing
to an entire corporation of vets merely because they work for a
corporation.
 
-
April AC, vet tech second and ferret owner/lover first
[Posted in FML issue 5130]