My daughters boyfriends mother, Alice, has ferrets. She loves them with her whole heart. In the years that she has had them she didn't have a ferret knowledgeable vet. A couple of years ago she brought a new baby home. The other ferrets, I think there was 7 or more of them, got sick with diarrhea, green stinky poops & vomiting. She was up day & night caring for them. Her vet said they had Parvo. She had them in the hospital & spent about $2,000.00 on them. She pawned jewelry, sold her collectables & everything else she could to pay for it. I think she lost either 2 or 3. Last year she heard Parvo was going around & panicked, so scared for her babies. I told my daughter that ferrets didn't get Parvo. Alice has faith in her vet & was certain he knew what he was talking about. I asked here on the FML, (and many responded) so I could print out the info & give it to her, I searched the archives & printed out everything there on Parvo, & on the Net. She still didn't believe they couldn't get it. I had been trying to get her to go to a vet that knows about ferrets but she had the utmost trust in her vet. She just recently brought a new baby home. She has never quarantined as she didn't know she was suppose to. One of them got sick again. It had very black poop & she said that it looked like it was dark blood. She was up all night & then took it to her vet. He gave it some kind of shot & subQ fluids. Told her to give it Kayopectate (sp?) & baking soda. Said it had a virus & the baking soda would get rid of it. He also had her mash up sardines in soy & force feed it, said it was for protein. She was also giving it pedialite. He told her that the ferret would be fine the next day or so, back up on her feet. She also didn't have control of her hind end. My daughter got her to call me, when the next day came & she wasn't any better. I did my best to convince her to take the ferret to one of two places that had doctors that were ferret knowledgeable. Since she just got a PC I sent her the URL for Ferret Central. The next day she emailed me & said the ferret was worse & she was going to have her put to sleep. I about begged her to take it to someone I knew & trusted. The one hospital is in Lutz & I have not used them for ferrets but had for dogs & birds. The other one is in Palm Harbor which would be a farther drive for her. She did decide to take the ferret to the place nearest her but didn't know exactly where it was. I told her I'd meet her & either go with her or take her. I was not happy with the fact that we were told the doctor she had the appointment with wouldn't even see the ferret until they had the medical records faxed over from her vets office so we had to sit there & wait & wait & wait. When we did get to go back, the ferret was weighed & then had her temp taken. Even though they knew she had been having diarrhea they didn't do a fecal test. A doctor came in but it wasn't one I knew & it wasn't the one she had the appointment with & there wasn't any explanation as to why. I wasn't impressed with the doctor but then that is me. It was decided to keep her overnight & treat her with antibiotics & subQ her again & watch her. She did have feeling in her hind legs & had a strong pulse & heartbeat & no problems with respiratory. The cost for the initial exam & some treatment was $118.00, she got a detailed bill after asking for it. Alice was going to get her yesterday but they asked to keep her another day & she was suppose to pick her up today. Was told that she was responding better & taking food. Today when she went to get her the ferret was in bad shape. Wasn't able to hold her head up & didn't respond to Alice. The doctor came in with an armload of medication. Alice said that she didn't believe that the ferret was going to make it & thought she should be put to sleep so she wouldn't suffer. The vet agreed & said it was best because she was full of cancer. Alice has had very little sleep since all of this happened, has missed a lot of work & possibly lost her job because she didn't go to work last night as she has another sick ferret at home & wanted to take care of it, her supervisor told her not to come back. After her husband found out she didn't have the ferret put to sleep right off but took it to another vet they got into a big argument. Husband says all vets are the same & only want as much money as they can get. Husband told her to get out. Alice asked the doctor to give her an itemized statement & exactly what was wrong with the ferret. The doctor said she would & left the room. After keeping Alice waiting a long time she sent someone in to tell her that she didn't have time to do that & would get it to her in a few days. The bill was $200. There had been no tests run on the ferret so how it was determined that there was either a virus or cancer is not known. Except for Amoxi there wasn't any other med given today. And she had paid for the exam & the subQ & the stay for one day, the first time there. I am very upset about this whole thing. I felt so good that she was finally going to take her ferrets to someone who knew what they were doing & to have her treated this way is inexcusable as far as I am concerned. I know she will never go back there & as it is now I won't either. She was basically just advised to have the ferret put to sleep & the doctor didn't have time for her after that. She did say that there wouldn't be a charge to have Princess put to sleep. In a way I feel I meddled too much as her husband is so mad at her & she did get her hopes up only to end up losing her anyway. There are so many good people here I would ask that if you all could, to please send Alice some letters of support & sympathy through me or to post on the FML & I will copy them & send them to her. I don't feel I should give out her email addy as I haven't talked to her about it. I don't think she would mind, but still. Anyway I will forward her anything that comes for her without opening it if you put "Forward to Alice" as subject. She doesn't have much PC knowledge yet but I think she will want to reply. If she wants to do it through me I hope that will be ok. Thank you all Lynn [Posted in FML issue 2964]