From:
Amy and Jim Robbin
Date: 2001-06-15 10:12:00 UTC
Subject: vet costs
It does seem that medical costs for ferrets runs very high.
In my guestimation it's probably due to a couple of factors:
1) the location of your vet (what the market will bear)
2) the fact that the symptoms can be so nonspecific that
sometimes multiple tests have to be run to find the root
cause.
I have two vets, one is my local vet for routine care, but she
is in a very expensive area so I've found her costs to be very
high. Also where ferrets were not legal in MA for so long
many people went out of state for care, so many vets in this
area are still relative new at this.
My second vet, for more difficult issues, is about a 1 1/2
hour drive, his costs can be quite expensive but his
experience is very extensive so he tends to run the best tests
for the issue at hand. I recently had a $1000 diarrea case
due to using an inexperienced vet. I had multiple visits to
the inexperienced vet with no results, yet multiple tests.
One visit to the experienced vet, along with one test ... two
days later the diarrea is cleared up.
I hate to say it, but I have a mare that I have been trying to
breed for three years. This involves multiple vet trips out
to my barn, ultrasounds, and inseminations. My vet bills for
the breeding equal to one year of vet bills for my ferrets
(7). Expensive pets, yet so worth it.
Amy
PS I have to make sure my horses vet never finds out about the
ferret costs!