Both of the topics related to Meg Carpenter's comments:
 
Iso vs ketamine -
 
I prefer iso for my ferrets.  The animal hospital I worked at "several"
years ago used ketamine.  My male ferret who was neutered in the AM could
not go home that night because he was still too groggy.  There's no excuse
for that.  Any ferret who had surgery there had a rough time coming out of
the anesthesia and was 'out of it' for a few days.
 
I started using another vet who used iso for all ferret surgeries, and I
found my ferrets recovering much better, and certainly much quicker.  My
current vet uses iso as well and I am content with my ferrets' recovery
after surgery.
 
As far as hallucinogenic effects - it seems that back in the late 60s, some
'joints' were laced with 'angel dust' or 'PCP' - a hallucinogen, which
turned out to be animal anesthesia - ketamine.
 
Hey, Meg, if you don't stick your face in the cone mask, you won't get
woozy! :)
 
Rx Scripts-
 
Meg's absoultely right.  I had the same experience 2 weeks ago - my vet's
office called in a script to the hospital pharmacy for Pediapred, 1.25 ml
once every other day......the label said 6.25 ml!  I was shocked!
 
What if I hadn't known any better?  I called the pharmacy who rechecked the
script and apologized, and said I was absolutely right, it DID say 1.25 ml
on the phone order.  He wrote it up wrong.
 
Whenever your vet calls in a script to an outside pharmacy, ask him the name
of the drug, the strength, and the directions, and check your labels to be
sure everything agrees.
 
It's even a good idea to ask your vet what the strength and directions will
be for any drug he plans to dispense.  Sometimes stuff happens, and it may
be written up incorrectly, so always check.
 
Debbie Riccio
[Posted in FML issue 2360]