>This problem with botched surgeries is isolated geographically.  Why is
>it such a problem in Washington but not elsewhere in the country?"
 
I don't want to get into a major debate on this, but I can assure you this
isn't isolated to Washington.  I live in Massachusetts and my 6 ferrets
are MF.  One of my females has a surgery scar so wide and long that it
reaches well past the middle of her belly, and it has never grown any hair
on it.  When we got her as a baby, it was infected and badly closed up,
and our vet said it was one the worst stitching jobs she'd ever seen.  God
only knows what it looked like on the inside.  One of my males came as a
5-week old with a neuter scar twice as long as it needed to be, stitched
in some crazy meandering line, and our vet had to actually re-open the
incision and stitch it back up like a professional would have done it, had
the surgery been done by anyone who knew what the hell they were doing!
 
If I sound a little peeved, I am.  Our shelters see neuter and spay scars
on MF ferrets constantly that look more like they had mutilations than
surgeries.
 
I don't think it's a matter of isolation; Danielle just happens to be
someone who is very vocal about it.  Just because other people aren't
posting about it doesn't mean it's not a problem in other regions as well.
I personally have 2 out of 6 with surgeries that our vet could not say
enough bad things about.  That's 1/3 of my ferrets with bad surgeries.  Am
I just an incredibly unlucky person who somehow managed to acquire two
rare MF botched surgeries (two years apart at two different stores)?  If
so I am a statistical miracle.  And again, if this post sounds a little
angry, I don't mean to be attacking anyone.  Those badly done, careless
surgeries put my ferrets through additional pain and trauma when my vet
had to fix what should have been done correctly the first time.
 
-Heather
[Posted in FML issue 3632]