Hi Mary,
 
I couldn't tell from your posting if you are being charged all three of
these:
 
>     Adrenalectomy, left ferret          $225.00
>     Adrenalectomy, Bilateral ferret      450.00
>     Adrenalectomy, right ferrt           270.00
 
Plus the other costs for diagnosis, supplies, etc., or if those are just
options, depending on what happens on the table.  If you are being charged
for all three of those plus associated costs, that seems a bit excessive.
 
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, adrenal surgeries with no complications,
including all associated costs seem to range from about $300-350 from a vet
in Pacifica who's just getting into ferrets (and at last check she wasn't
comfortable doing right adrenals, so if your ferret was unlucky enough to
have a right adrenal tumor, he/she would be in for a second surgery from one
of the other area ferret vets), to $650 or so from my favorite ferret vet
(Dr. Rene Gandolfi in Castro Valley) who seems to have a keen interest in
ferrets, and lots of experience with them.  Or you can travel a couple of
hours to a more rural area (Healdsburg, for example), where there are
well-experienced ferret vets who I think are in the $400 range.
 
I'd imagine that the SF Bay Area is one of the more expensive places to have
adrenal surgery done (vets have to pay for this insanely expensive housing
too!), so if your total costs are much higher than these, maybe you've been
gouged.  On the other hand, if they're lower (I couldn't quite tell from
your posting), you should consider yourself lucky.
 
A friend here has a $1600 estimate to take care of her little girl ferret
who a) has a swollen vulva and we think adrenal disease, and b) has been
behaving as if she has a GI obstruction from eating something unathorized,
for a couple of days now, and it's not responding to laxatone.  She doesn't
have much income and is pretty much beside herself, but the vet is doing a
credit arrangement for a $20 fee plus reasonable interest charges (1% a
month, I think it is).  That seems fair to me.
 
Happy Ferreting!
Dennis
[Posted in FML issue 2258]