Right now I am taking a brain break from an obstinate zooarchy report
I am frantically trying to get done so I can go out to California next
week and give a couple of talks. For those of you who haven't heard
this a hundred times, I am a zooarchaeologist and I make my living (as
it is) identifying animal bones from archaeological sites, figuring out
how many are there (saying 3 right femurs = 3 raccoons is easy. What if
you have 7 fragments of raccoon right femurs?), what happened to them
after they died (did a dog chew them?), checking for pathology (is that
osteosarcoma I spy?) and tons of other cool stuff. Archaeologists, when
they have the money, send me the bones, and I spread them out on long
tables and act like a lab rat covered with dirt rooting through them.
It is really important I finish this report because driving out to
California and back is expensive, and I'd rather spend my money talking
about ferrets than replace the laptop I had stolen last year.

No more laptop means I can't write while on the road. That means I have
2 more all-nighters to get this done so I can leave. Well, after I send
in my already late column to Ferrets, send an outline for a book, send
a working paper for a ferret dental article for a DVM journal, AND help
out a friend working on a paper of their own. And yesterday I spent
much of the day on the phone to New Zealand, working out some details
so I can go there and study feral ferrets to help prove some medical
issues in pet ferrets, as well as to prove some ecological issues for
the California legalization fight. I get a bit busy, but I've cut back
since I discovered I contracted MRSA during surgery a while ago, which
infected my lungs.

I am an extremely well-educated professional who is lucky to earn
$12,000 a year doing what I am trained to do. I would work for a state
agency and double my pay, except then I would probably have to drop out
of almost everything ferret related (time constraints), and I am not
ready to do that until I finish my work on ferret enrichment, teeth and
skeleton, domestication, and behavior. So I earn extra money (extra?
Ha!) by doing work for pathologists, shooting model portfolios, and
doing research and grunt work for professors. I'm not proud. But I am
extremely tight-fisted with my resources; being considered a skin flint
is much better than going bankrupt because of credit card bills. It is
not my choice, but necessary.

So why am I discussing this? Because as tight as things are, I would
NEVER, as in EVER, complain my vet was charging too much for their
expertise. There are fewer vet schools than med schools, so the
competition is much greater. That translates as the people who go to
vet school are academically better than those who go to med school.
They go into a profession knowing they will not make a ton of money,
so they are demonstrating a strong desire to care for the health of
animals. A vet's level of technical skill is as great as any human
surgeon. I have a dear friend who was bragging to me that she was going
to operate on a newborn. I put up with it for a while, and then told
her it was easy to work on a baby when you had 3 surgical assistants,
a scrub tech to hand instruments, 2 circulating nurses to get stuff,
and 2 anesthesiologists to make sure the baby was kept under and alive
during the procedure. I then told her if she really wanted to impress
me, she would operate on an animal a fourth the size of a baby, with
just a single vet tech to help, and still have a 90% success rate.
THAT is what vets do!

I recently attended a national vet conference (NAVC) and gave four
presentations. While I was there, I went to the vendor's area twice. It
was really to buy some cheap instruments for zooarchy and ferret stuff,
but I also bought a few books I could use for ferret research. Because
I was the first non-vet to speak to my particular group, they didn't
know how to deal with me on the computer, so I was logged in as a DVM.
We all joked about it, and there was absolutely no misrepresentation
to the vets in attendance, BUT, it said I was a DVM on my name tag.
As I walked through the vendors, I was handed tons of information on
supplies, x-ray machines, instruments, drugs, and just about anything
you can imagine. I especially liked the toys. The point is that vets
don't get a discount because they are working for animals; they pay as
much or more as any human doctor for identical stuff. I saw one vet
spend $700 on a small set of surgical tools. Another vet spent $3000
on a single micro instrument to do surgery on ferrets. Another spent
thousands just for a light and a pair of binocular surgical glasses.
I saw a digital x-ray machine with a price tag of $120,000. Who pays
for this?

You do, I do, we all do. We do it by paying for office visits, for
having our vets do our inoculations, and by buying our drugs from the
vet. All those tiny profits pay for my vet to go to conferences and
learn the latest techniques for caring for my ferret. It allows them to
buy better equipment to work on tiny little animals. It affords them
the ability to watch a rented movie on their DVD and relax before they
study up on the surgery they are going to do on your animal in the
morning. It allows them to use a digital x-ray and manipulate the image
to find those pieces of rubber are making it through the bowel and
your ferret will not need surgery, just a few syringes of pumpkin
pi filler. It lets them pay for online subscriptions for scientific
journals so they can look up articles to better treat your ferret.
Is it expensive? You bet your ass it is, but much of the cost is out
of the hands of the vet. If a vet has a secretary, a vet tech and a
janitor, who pays those salaries? Yes, vet care is expensive, but going
to vet school, running a vet clinic, and paying for vet supplies are
also expensive.

I've actually spent considerable time with vets; at their clinics, in
surgery with them, in their homes, and I have to say that in terms of
quality of product, they are a bargain in the field of medicine. I have
yet to meet a vet that I wouldn't allow to work on me (not that they
can). Most of the vets I've met cut client costs as much as they can.

I have always felt that we would have much better human doctors if they
were required to spend two years as a vet before being allowed to work
with people. THAT is how much respect and admiration I have for vets.
They are my heros. They do all this at the risk of serious injury from
animal bites (get a cat bite on your hands and see what happens), risk
of disease, and even risk of death (a vet friend of mine died from
being kicked in the head by a horse).

If you want your vet to be there when you need them, if you want them
to have the equipment to save the life of your ferret, if you want them
to have the drugs on hand to help your ferret, and if you want them to
be able to pick up the phone, listen to your problem, and then tell
you to hightail it over so they can do emergency surgery, then SOMEONE
has to pay for it! Vets make tiny profits on a lot of small purchases,
visits, and that sort of thing. I don't buy nutrical at Petco; I buy it
for a few cents more from my vet. I don't get drugs from the internet;
I buy them from my vet because I trust them and know I will get a
wholesome product. I don't by vaccinations from non-vet sources; I
get it from my vet, who will also watch for reactions and has the
experience and equipment to save a life should the need arise. Each and
every time I do this, I help my vet watch their costs and improve their
ability to care for my ferrets. It is money well spent on people who
deserve it and more. My ferrets deserve it, and if it means I can't
replace my laptop, or buy a friend a dinner when visiting them, or buy
stuff at a ferret show, then that is a small price to pay. I've said
this before and I'll undoubtedly say it again: I have 14 ferrets, but
not a single one to spare. My vet helps me hold them to my heart as
long as possible. It is a debt I can never repay.

Just my 2-cents. Ok, at this length, maybe a dollar. Thank you Dr.
Leis, for all you do for animals and ferrets.

Bob C [log in to unmask]

[Posted in FML 5549]