My daughters boyfriends mother, Alice,  has ferrets.  She loves them with
her whole heart.  In the years that she has had them she didn't have a
ferret knowledgeable vet.  A couple of years ago she brought a new baby
home.  The other ferrets, I think there was 7 or more of them, got sick with
diarrhea, green stinky poops & vomiting.
 
She was up day & night caring for them.  Her vet said they had Parvo.  She
had them in the hospital & spent about $2,000.00 on them.  She pawned
jewelry, sold her collectables & everything else she could to pay for it.  I
think she lost either 2 or 3.
 
Last year she heard Parvo was going around & panicked, so scared for her
babies.  I told my daughter that ferrets didn't get Parvo.  Alice has faith
in her vet & was certain he knew what he was talking about.  I asked here on
the FML, (and many responded) so I could print out the info & give it to
her, I searched the archives & printed out everything there on Parvo, & on
the Net.  She still didn't believe they couldn't get it.  I had been trying
to get her to go to a vet that knows about ferrets but she had the utmost
trust in her vet.
 
She just recently brought a new baby home.  She has never quarantined as she
didn't know she was suppose to.  One of them got sick again.  It had very
black poop & she said that it looked like it was dark blood.  She was up all
night & then took it to her vet.  He gave it some kind of shot & subQ
fluids.  Told her to give it Kayopectate (sp?) & baking soda.  Said it had a
virus & the baking soda would get rid of it.  He also had her mash up
sardines in soy & force feed it, said it was for protein.  She was also
giving it pedialite.  He told her that the ferret would be fine the next day
or so, back up on her feet.  She also didn't have control of her hind end.
 
My daughter got her to call me, when the next day came & she wasn't any
better.  I did my best to convince her to take the ferret to one of two
places that had doctors that were ferret knowledgeable.  Since she just got
a PC I sent her the URL for Ferret Central.  The next day she emailed me &
said the ferret was worse & she was going to have her put to sleep.  I
about begged her to take it to someone I knew & trusted.  The one hospital
is in Lutz & I have not used them for ferrets but had for dogs & birds.
The other one is in Palm Harbor which would be a farther drive for her.
She did decide to take the ferret to the place nearest her but didn't know
exactly where it was.  I told her I'd meet her & either go with her or take
her.
 
I was not happy with the fact that we were told the doctor she had the
appointment with wouldn't even see the ferret until they had the medical
records faxed over from her vets office so we had to sit there & wait & wait
& wait.  When we did get to go back, the ferret was weighed & then had her
temp taken.  Even though they knew she had been having diarrhea they didn't
do a fecal test.
 
A doctor came in but it wasn't one I knew & it wasn't the one she had the
appointment with & there wasn't any explanation as to why.  I wasn't
impressed with the doctor but then that is me.  It was decided to keep her
overnight & treat her with antibiotics & subQ her again & watch her.  She
did have feeling in her hind legs & had a strong pulse & heartbeat & no
problems with respiratory.  The cost for the initial exam & some treatment
was $118.00, she got a detailed bill after asking for it.
 
Alice was going to get her yesterday but they asked to keep her another day
& she was suppose to pick her up today.  Was told that she was responding
better & taking food.  Today when she went to get her the ferret was in bad
shape.  Wasn't able to hold her head up & didn't respond to Alice.  The
doctor came in with an armload of medication.  Alice said that she didn't
believe that the ferret was going to make it & thought she should be put to
sleep so she wouldn't suffer.  The vet agreed & said it was best because she
was full of cancer.  Alice has had very little sleep since all of this
happened, has missed a lot of work & possibly lost her job because she
didn't go to work last night as she has another sick ferret at home & wanted
to take care of it, her supervisor told her not to come back.  After her
husband found out she didn't have the ferret put to sleep right off but took
it to another vet they got into a big argument.  Husband says all vets are
the same & only want as much money as they can get.  Husband told her to get
out.
 
Alice asked the doctor to give her an itemized statement & exactly what was
wrong with the ferret.  The doctor said she would & left the room.  After
keeping Alice waiting a long time she sent someone in to tell her that she
didn't have time to do that & would get it to her in a few days.  The bill
was $200.  There had been no tests run on the ferret so how it was
determined that there was either a virus or cancer is not known.  Except for
Amoxi there wasn't any other med given today.  And she had paid for the exam
& the subQ & the stay for one day, the first time there.
 
I am very upset about this whole thing.  I felt so good that she was finally
going to take her ferrets to someone who knew what they were doing & to have
her treated this way is inexcusable as far as I am concerned.  I know she
will never go back there & as it is now I won't either.  She was basically
just advised to have the ferret put to sleep & the doctor didn't have time
for her after that.  She did say that there wouldn't be a charge to have
Princess put to sleep.  In a way I feel I meddled too much as her husband is
so mad at her & she did get her hopes up only to end up losing her anyway.
 
There are so many good people here I would ask that if you all could, to
please send Alice some letters of support & sympathy through me or to post
on the FML & I will copy them & send them to her.  I don't feel I should
give out her email addy as I haven't talked to her about it.  I don't think
she would mind, but still.  Anyway I will forward her anything that comes
for her without opening it if you put "Forward to Alice" as subject.  She
doesn't have much PC knowledge yet but I think she will want to reply.  If
she wants to do it through me I hope that will be ok.
 
Thank you all
Lynn
[Posted in FML issue 2964]