I felt the need to respond to the 'Interaction with vets' post. Having
had ferrets for almost 8 years now, I have had many interactions with
vets as you can imagine. I can't speak for all vets of course, but
only from my own experience.

You make some very good suggestions, such as ask questions, make
suggestions, make sure the vet has all the facts, sub-q. But the
suggestion that the vet's only concern is making money is very harsh.

Whenever I visited my vet, the 1st concern was always for the ferret.
They would be examined, then I would hear the various options.
Depending on the situation the options would sometimes include 'wait
and see', medication, surgery, intensive care, or euthanasia. After
the surgeries I would always take a deep breath before I looked at the
bill. This was especially hard when the ferret had died soon after the
surgery. Was I ever pressured into surgeries? Of course not, it was my
decision to do whatever I could.

>For example, one of my ferrets recently had a pancreatomy. The vet
>also removed some small cysts from the body cavity. He recommended
>the cysts be sent for biopsy. The ferret is 5 1/2 years old; so I
>knew if it was cancer, we weren't going to treat it.

I've have biopsies done, and they turned out to be infections.. very
treatable with antibiotics. It's easier to make decisions when you
know the facts.

>had a vet who recommended treatment on two ferrets (different times),
>only to find out within a couple of weeks that the ferrets couldn't be
>treated and should have been put to sleep right away. The bottom line
>is the vet was trying to make money from the treatment until the animal
>had to be put to sleep.

Vets aren't psychics. When you bring in a sick ferret, would you rather
have them put to sleep without trying to find out the problem???

I recently became the bookkeeper for a vet hospital, and now see what
a vet is up against. Medical supplies, surgical supplies, medications,
office supplies, advertising, heat, A/C, electric, telephone,
rent/mortgage, postage, computers, software, payroll, payroll taxes,
xray machines, radiation tags for employees, surgical equipment,
permits, licenses, monthly equipment maintenance, books, hazardous
waste disposal, insurance, and very little pay. Most vets are not in
this business to make money. They are in it to help animals. Whatever
they charge is barely covering their expenses.. Now when I get my own
vet bill I still take that deep breath, but I also understand what it
includes.

I think we should be thanking our vets, not taking them to task for
trying to keep their practice afloat.

[SF]

[Posted in FML 6038]