To Alice: Ditto, thanks for the cartoon. It's great.
 
To Rochelle: There seems to be a fairly broad spread among fees for
spaying a ferret, and yes, it is higher than for cats and perhaps even
some dogs. I think I paid $40-45 for my cats to be fixed. But when I
rescued my snugglewumpus ferret, Frankie, this year, the prices were
higher. I figured it would cost me about $40. Wrong. One veterinary clinic
across town where I didn't know anyone wanted $75; my regular vet wanted
$160; my ferrets' previous regular vet before she went out on her own
charged $125. I took the middle road and went to their old vet because I
wasn't comfortable taking her to someone I didn't know.
Increasingly, though, I find myself going to their new vet because their
old vet no longer has regular hours and isn't always available. The new
vet is a little more expensive, but he's an excellent surgeon and he has
other colleagues he can confer with in the office if needed. (He took a
seminar from Dr. Susan Brown earlier this year.) He also has a hospital he
can send them to if necessary where the vets know something about ferrets.
I have heard tnp-00-p0 (that was Esperanza's contribution just now) that
fees for fixing dogs can vary based on the size of dog, and run anywhere
from $35 to $75. Generally, animal care experts try to keep the costs of
fixing cats and dogs down because there are too many of them being killed
each week and the vets and city officials are trying to encourage people to
get the operation done. (According to our Animal Humane Association, 550
cats and dogs are euthanized each week in the city of Albuquerque. And
that number is small compared to larger cities.)
But there's no such program for ferrets. Also, I suspect ferrets are more
expensive to treat because less is known about them.
 
Linda, C-pi, Espie, and Frankie
[Posted in FML issue 1011]