I ran into a problem last Friday night. Our regular specialist ferret
vet was off and the other vet that was on who has taken care of some of
our other ferrets when the regular vet is off had this to say about a
ferret with a urinary blockage.... Let me start with the problem. Male
neutered 4yo ferret, adrenal surgery Dec 06, no problems since starts
to strain on Friday night. We act quickly and call vet which is over
an hour from our home. They finally get the vet out of a room and she
states that she is not familar with ferret blockages and cannot help us
unless we are going to put him to sleep. I think she was scared because
we had one about a month ago 6yo, neutered male with post adrenal, on
lupron for 2 yrs post adrenal and had a prostate abcess which she could
not help with and he got bad really quick and she had to put him down.
Scared or not I think this was the wrong response. I felt helpless....

We called another vet at Harleysville Dr Wagner...a true angel and
lifesaver. He said bring him in and this was almost 8pm on a friday
night. We raced to the vet just 45min away and they took us right in.
It was determined that he had a blockage and they worked with him
almost 2 hours to help him and rehydrate him. In the car he started to
pee and has been peeing and pooping since on his own. He was rechecked
on Sat by the other vet in the practice Dr Kennedy and checked out
great. He has to go again tonight for a recheck. Dr Wagner did an
incision at the prepuce, did labs, x-ray & fluids and didn't even write
up charges yet. They charged nothing for a recheck visit and we will
pay tonight but I felt we were treated so wonderfully and Dr Wagner
kept us updated every step of the treatment. He said it was a critical
time and they were not even sure that he might need surgery. He said
he would be available for Dr Kennedy if needed on Sat. I was amazed. I
felt so comfortable with this vet too and he was new to us.

Now what do you say to the regular vet about the other vet's comments?
Do you let it go or speak up? That practice which I won't reveal at
this time as not to give them a bad name has lost alot of business from
us now and that is truely sad. They moved from a small office to a big
hospital setting and now seem to have gotten too big for their own
britches.

If anyone wants to know the name of the place email me off list because
I don't want to be passing bad information out as the regular vet is
still wonderful..

Have a good one
Debbie

[Posted in FML 5601]