To Victoria Hadfield: After reading your post in FML#751, I could not get it off my mind all day. I felt very saddened on hearing your situation. You obviously loved Antigone very much and took very good care of her throughout her life with you. You should take solace in the fact that you had rescued her from a less than optimal environment and then provided loving and quality care for the remainder of her life. It seems a cruel twist of fate that you should have to go through the ordeal that you went through with her, and then be accused of not having done everything you could for her within reason. I think that the $1000.00 surgical fee sounds terribly high, and I also feel that very few people, as much as they love their pets, would be able to commit that much money in light of all the other commitments that life presents to us all. I feel, sadly, that under the same circumstances, I would also have to take the same actions that you did. I don't think that the majority of competent and loving ferret owners are in the enviable financial position to do anything much differently than you did. My heart goes out to you. I realize that running a veterinary practice is an expensive venture, with all the overhead costs involved, and the fact that in the end the veterinarian does have to turn a profit and earn a living, however the $1000 surgery quoted in this case seems quite high to me. Perhaps one of the vets on the FML would care to comment on this. To Dr. Williams: The FML is very lucky to have such a competent and compassionate veterinarian "in residence on the list". Your love of animals shows in everything you write. Thank you for making yourself available. Dennis Kennedy [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 0752]