I meant to post this sooner--please don't blame a person who has no luck
finding a good vet.  Where I lived before there were exactly two vets who
claimed to be any good with ferrets.  Both claimed it to everyone and
anyone.  Both were recommended by the local ferret club and rescue (what
choice did they have?) and are listed on well-respected national lists.
What kind of research do you want someone to do, if they can't go by
that?  One had articles written about her every now and then in local
magazines, saying how accomplished and caring she was, showing her
working with adorable baby zoo animals.  I've since seen mention on the
health list, soliciting info for one--she was writing a ferret-related
paper (doing a study?  something like that.)  Doesn't THAT sound like
sufficient credentials?  (And, no, I'm not telling the area or the vets
on-list.)
 
It would take far longer than I've got to tell the horror stories about
these vets.  Whenever something went wrong, I'd just have to empty out my
purse and pray that what I was doing was better than nothing.  Often it
wasn't, and even though I now live hours from the nearest ferret vet, I
consider myself and my fuzzpals much, much better off.  Please, please,
please don't add insult to the loss this person must be feeling by
blaming poor research for the bad experiences they've had with vets.
It does happen.  Just consider yourself lucky to be in an area where
your research actually can pay off.
[Posted in FML issue 5128]