Steve and I swear by Hanan Caine of the Basking Ridge Animal Hospital in
New Jersey.  We've had ferrets for over 15 years and have used such top
notch people as Kathy Quesenberry and Liz Hillyer in the past, but Hanan is
much closer to us, he did a specialization at the AMC in exotics, and he
exchanges information on a regular basis with many specialists, including
those at the AMC.  (We still give to the AMC Exotics Group, BTW, and anyone
near NYC should keep them in mind since they are undeniably great, too.)
Hanan is bar-none the best veterinary surgeon we've ever encountered, as
good as a university research hospital (human med) surgeon I had to use
once.  He even once had to operate on a little girl we had with multiple
deformities, cardiomyopathy, advanced insulinoma (to the point where even
phenobarbital had been tried to control the grande mal seizures and try to
avoid surgery due to her heart problems) and several other things.  She
finally had to have surgery to get another half year since she had a cystic
liver disease also start and it was in danger of causing death soon.  She
had multiple operations at once, with her heart as bad as it was and some
major blood vessels in places which should not have had any, and she
survived and went on to have good time till yet other things began to fail.
(She was also clinically "retarded" and everything in her was just failing
at once, but we all gave her a shot, and the choice had to be made fast
because the liver disease was moving so rapidly.) Hanan is honest; he
doesn't try to push a favorite diagnostic candidate if there are multiple
possible diagnoses (which upsets people who want something hard and fast
even when it's not possible); he's not judgemental or nasty when an
accident or a goof happens.  The first thing he does typically is to say
hello to the critters (unless they are in a cage -- when that's a bit
harder).  Here's the most telling thing: he is LOVED by our ferrets.  No
joking.  We have had ferrets who just plain didn't want to leave the
hospital after a visit because they could hear his voice and wanted to go
kiss and cuddle him again.  We have liked every one of the vets at that
hospital; each one is honest about what is and isn't known, and they are
now requiring their new vets to have ferrets in their study past which is
neat, while at least one other vets has been learning about ferrets on her
own time.  They have alway responded rapidly any time of day or night when
we've had an emergency, too, and have saved ferrets for us many times.
 
Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 2454]