When I read the postings from today(yesterday as you read this now) I was
seething with anger.  Angry at the incompetent vets and vet techs whose
inexperience and lack of humility prevented them from saving several
ferrets lives.  There were a few different cases cited where if they had
just been a little humble and called someone who does know by asking a
shelter or other collegues for advice, those few ferrets might still be
alive today.
 
I recognized the symptoms of three of the cases and am intimately familiar
with them.  NOTE Please understand that there are very good vets out there
who work on ferrets and they aren't even a part of this discussion.  I
have seen the symtoms hundreds of times and they are very common.  Not only
were the cases, I believe, misdiagnosed, but the recommended regimen of
treatment wasn't even close.  A couple of the cases have grounds for
lawsuits.  I clashed with a vet last year who was making claims in public
of seeing 600-700 ferrets a year and his experience is extremely great.
Yet I rec'd 4 surrendered ferrets from his clients last year that had been
declawed all the way around!  My first attempts at civil dialogue went like
this...  Yes Dr.--------, This is Randy Horton from Especially Ferrets is
Aurora.  In the last two months, I have rec's 4 ferrets that were declawed
by you and I had some concerns about the practice of declawing that I would
like to discuss with you.  His response was a loud stream of cursing and
threats to sue me for "busting his chops" and then he hung up on me.  My
point is, Don't ever trust a new vet or a vet who isn't recommended by a
shelter.  If you feel something is "hinky", call your local shelter and ask
for help in finding a competent vet.  BIG, can you repost my article on
"Vet Care" from a few weeks back?  Please??  I really dislike coming off
as Mr Know-it -all, but I,ve spent a lot of time with my vets, not only in
clinic, but in surgery and I'm always asking questions.  Sometimes, I'm a
big pain in the ---, but I don't take too many things for granted.  I've
seen and experienced some really wacky things in the veterinary business.
Most vets see alot of cats and dogs.  Some see a lot of agriculture type
animals.  and out of all the vets in this country that know ferrets, I
would imagine the numbers might run around 5-10 per cent of all of them
that are really qualified to work on ferrets.  I'm being really
conservative with those numbers too.!
 
I'm ok now,
Ferretguy
 
[Moderator's note: Let me review it and if it is an unusually light day
(as some weekends in July tend to be) I'll consider reposting it.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 3119]