>From:    Norma-ann Mooney <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Mighty (expensive) MITES-- Help please.
>she said, "He's got mites".  Now, i haven't noticed Leo scratching a lot,
>and his ear wax is a normal brown colour...not to say she was lying...she
>just seemed to come to that conclusion very quickly (she didn't take a swab
>or look under a microscope).
 
I'm surprised she could come that kind of clinical diagnosis without doing a
swab.  My vet "always* checks under the micrscope before saying yea or nay.
He says he would like to project that image onto a big screen and have ear
mite races.  hmm ... maybe my vet is a little whacky after all.  Ahem,
anyway ...
 
>Then she said that the only way to "cure" him is to put him out and clean
>his ears that way and then treat them...she said... Here's the incredible
>part... this will cost me close to $500!!!!!
 
That is definately unreasonable, in my opinion.  While she is correct that
you will probably have to do them all, you won't have to "put them under" to
get rid of mites.  We are using Ivermectin to banish the mite beasties, and
it works really well.  We treat every new ferret that comes in for mites, as
a precaution, and because we go through so much and because it is so
inexpensive, our vet gives us the Ivermectin free.  We do one dose and two
weeks later another and it's working really well, and it doesn't cost us a
penny.  I think you are definately corrct about needing a new vet :-) IMHO
of course.
 
I heard the word "ferrets" while listening to the CBC at work this morning,
so I dropped a handful of zebra finches and rushed to turn it up.  They did
a short piece about ferrets in Maryland now being legal, and said that
government agencies were "extremely impressed with the hard work and
dedication of ferret owners of behalf of their pets." Now that's some damn
fine PR!  The only other time I heard "ferrets" on the CBC was when they
interviewed the priest in Scotland who had the ferret wander up his cassock
while delivering his sermon ...
 
Sheena
Wherret Ferrets Halfway House and Ferretry
Ferret Association of Greater Vancouver
[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1713]