Regarding the ferret at Petco, if you have already bought the ferret, it
will up to the General Manager whether they will do anything about a
discount.  Your best bet will be to get the documentation from your vet
and present it to the manager, and state your case- if you don't get what
you feel is right there, contact Corporate.  I have to tell you, though,
while I don't doubt your vet's medical competence, I highly doubt the
ferret is a year or more old.  He wouldn't have been kept at the store
that long.  Once they have been there six months or so, they are adopted
out and/or sold at drastically reduced prices, because of their age, and
because it is hard to have them be in the enclosure with the small
babies.  The only way I can see that being correct is if the ferret had
been dumped by a private party- but then they couldn't sell him anyway.
Age can be hard to determine with the large boys.  He may be between 6
and 8 months old, and you should certainly have gotten a deep discount,
and I would absolutely push for that.
 
So, I took two girls in for Melatonin Implants- thought we would give it
a try and see if it would regulate them more than morning doses.  Maggie
is a dream- took it well, slurping her Ferretone- that huge needle slid
in, she didn't even flinch.  While that was happening, Jordan was busy
crossing the river Styx.... Sigh.  I put her on the table, hoping agaist
hope Ferretone would distact her.  My life does't work that way.  I
scruffed her nicely, still full of optimism (yes, "idiot" was flashing
across my forehead)- showed her the juice- she went to town.  I warned
the vet that she has some...issues.  My friend Amanda was with me, and
was petting her (she's not quite so optimistic- she was just waiting with
a smile on her face).  As soon as Sa..Jordan felt the needle, an enormous
screech fell from her mouth and she turned at the speed of the screech to
kill whatever it was which had interfered with her enjoyment of her Jamba
juice.  We all jumped and moved our hands out of her reach, but here's
the thing- the little girls are quite agile and can jump- yeah.... the
vet has a couple of new piercings.  I wonder if you can wear earings on
your arms?  So, she had to be super scruffed, got the implant the hard
way, and now I am waiting for retaliation- because the child hold a
grudge:-)
 
The nice part was, because the vet had not done implants before and
wanted information on them, all I had to pay for, was the implants, and
because she sees so many ferrets, she bought a whole bunch, so they were
much cheaper.  What you may want to tell your clinic- if they haven't
done these yet- is that they will end up doing alot of paperwork- for
the new vendor stuff- they will not be able to just order the implants
until all of that is done.
[Posted in FML issue 5177]