To Kari Lee:
 
>My question is what career opportunities are you aware of for a future
>veterinarian with a strong interest in domestic ferrets? Can you offer advice
>to someone who wishes to practice veterinary medicine predominantly on ferrets
>- as companion animals or otherwise? From the disease package I saw that the
>armed forces has an interest in ferrets. What aspects of the animal are of such
>interest to the military? (Just curious.)
 
        As to your first question:  The career opportunities for working with
ferrets are two-fold - you may choose to work with them as a practitioner, or as
a laboratory animal veterinarian.  I am not qualified to talk on the second
option, but a lot of laboratories are using them as research animals (No, I'm
not advocating that, folks!!!)
 
        In the clinical arena, ferrets are becoming more and more popular.
Quite a few small animal or exotic vets are building excellent clienteles
composed of ferrets, and I could spend all day doing nothing but ferret cases
and answering ferret medical questions, had I the oportunity, as there are
almost no practicing veterinary pathologists doing any work in this species.  So
there is still a lot of room in this burgeoning area of veterinary medicine.
Can you make an entire practice out of ferrets?  No, not yet.  Even the busiest
ferret vets only have about 33% of their practice as ferrets.  But in the
future, who knows.  There are many veterinary practicies dedicated only to cats,
so I don't see why one day, ferret practices may not begin to crop up at large
urban centers.
 
        My advice - go to a school with a good small animal program and get a
good general veterinary education.  You may specialize when you come out.  There
are several veterianry students on the FML - Laura L'Heureux (frequent poster),
and Jenny Au (rarely seen around these parts anymore).  Seek them out and find
out how they are pursuing their interests while in school.
 
        Concerning what interest the military has in ferrets - basically none.
I run the residency program at the AFIP, which has one of the largest veterinary
pathology residency programs in the country.  I became interested in ferret
diseases about five years ago, and my interest has spilled over into the
residents.  We do 500 cases yearly in the department now - only diagnostics, no
live animal research.  We all enjoy looking at the various diseases, and we have
generated several papers and talks at various conventions during that time
period. And its nice to know that I am training the ferret pathologists of
tomorrow - I have great confidence in their abilities to work with ferret
tissues, and they'll be a great addition to the diagnostic community when they
leave here.
 
        Best of luck,
 
       Bruce Williams, DVM                 Department of Veterinary Pathology
       [log in to unmask]         Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
       (202) 782-2600/2602                 Washington, D.C.  20306-6000
[Posted in FML issue 1071]