Your emails were right on and we need to thank Debbie for her post not
bash her.

NOT only is it important to take a ferret to the vet when it is sick,
it is also important to do so when you first get a ferret in to get it
vaccinated, for protection and for a health exam. Most states I believe
do require rabies vaccination (required by a licensed vet) and we all
know the dangers of distemper. I don't care how many shelters have
different ways of handling things, to me this is basics. Even an
experience shelter mom can't always feel for tumors, check for ear
mites, examine the teeth, listen to the heart (even babies are prone
to heart murmurs) like a vet can. We know a lot and can treat common
Malays like diarrhea as usually we have the medicines on hand, have
seen it over and over and over and know what to do - all the way from
stress diarrhea to ECE diarrhea but sometimes it is Coccidi and we
need a microscope and chemicals to test for that. So a vet exam right
from the beginning is crucial for a legit true shelter.

Then when we are facing adrenal, insulnomia (I can't imagine not having
a glucose meter) liver damage, etc., we certainly need the vet to get
to the bottom of the problem, as with ferrets you don't mess around.
I don't begrudge one penny of our vet fees and medication fees and it
feels good not to guess what is wrong with the ferret but know and be
able to do what is right for them. I wrote previously about it and I
still stand by it, there are those out there who think running a
shelter is nothing but fun to play with ferrets all day, to get in free
ferrets and adopt them out for a fee , to get rich. A person who won't
listen to an experienced person are already set as to what they are
going to do, regardless of personalities involved, shows they are
already starting down the wrong road and it is not a road for the
welfare of the ferrets. And you know some people out and out lie, she
probably didn't get the info a ferret doesn't need vetting from a vet.

I can't tell you how many people have come here and thought OH THIS IS
WONDERFUL, I want to start a shelter. OK, then come a couple of days
a week, clean cages, medicate, wash and fold blankeys, mop floors and
scrape up you know whats, answer phones, take 4 pictures of each
ferret, fill out forms for petfinder, clean up play areas, organize
and put up new supplies, food, meds, clean up sick room disinfecting
everything and then look at the paperwork, filing surrender forms,
id forms, vaccination records on each individual ferret, adoption
contracts, foster contracts, receipts and bills in case of having to
make reports, print outs on medical information, research papers, etc
etc, filed and available when needed. I mean it goes on and on.

Some of the people change their minds after coming for ONE visit, some
it takes two or three visits. Those who help out so much here, and
there are a lot, they know better, they know what is involved to a
degree (you never know completely till you live it). They know how
your home isn't your home any more, phone rings off the hook like a
business, people coming to turn in ferrets, coming to adopt, coming to
help (yes that is an interruption too - of course, I want them here but
that means I am tied down with people in my house where it isn't a
sanctuary for me, homes are supposed to be that for people). Zoo is so
so right in saying how much dedication it takes as you kinda give up
your own life. I don't have many years left, I am 71, I would like to
have that time for me but I can't close this down, we've come too far.
I live for the day when the right person comes along to take it over -
to donate their house to the cause and make the sacrifices needed to
run a shelter. I know that day will come as we have been so blessed
with the help and support we have had, it will come. So, I also
appreciate when someone has the nerve to report on FML as Debbie did.
That makes us a stronger unit.

Surprisingly enough a lot of the beginners wonder how you get ferrets
and will adopt some to advertise they have ferrets for adoption, not
realizing when you establish yourself, the ferrets just seem to come
out of the woodwork, more than you can handle. I have had TWO I know of
who did adopt from me so they could have ferrets to offer as a shelter.
After less than a year, both of them had to surrender them back as well
as the ferrets they took in from other sources. Was that fun. No it
wasn't. I didn't suspect they were adopting to start a rescue, they
checked out fine.

So, THANK YOU Debbie for your report and where it took place at so we
can be on the lookout. I think most shelters want to help others, I
know I sure do, but we also know the dangers of someone getting started
on the wrong foot, who won't listen, and we have that gut feeling we
are going to be rescuing that rescue. They don't have to do things
the way we do it, but there are basic's to follow and vetting or not
vetting is a real flag.

Millie Sanders at Txferretrescue.org
with Texas Ferret Lovers Rescue and
connecting Foster homes and sanctuaries

[Posted in FML 8159]