From:
Katherine Kingsbury
Date: 2001-07-13 10:32:00 UTC
Subject: even just giving dosages can be risky
Encouraging the average pet owner to treat their
animals themselves without a veterinarian's advice can
be deadly for the animal. A lot of people don't
understand that antibiotics don't kill viruses. I've
seen many parvo puppies come in on the brink of death
because their owners put off taking the dog in. They
had been giving them pepto bismol and antibiotics at
home waiting for the animal to improve. The same is
true for ferrets. Many illnesses can be fixed much
more easily in the early stages before dehydration may
set in.
I know it's different for rehabbers and shelter
operators. After years of experience, they've pretty
much seen it all. In my opinion, I don't think a
public list is the place to share drug dosages and
courses of treatments without the animals first being
diagnosed by a veterinarian who has actually seen the
animal. How can someone on the list be sure all the
symptoms were acurately described? It's also easy to
say "adrenal" when someone describes hair loss, but
this could also be from fleas...without all the facts,
a pet owner could be scared of losing their ferret to
surgery or complications when all they really needed
was flea control.
Just my opinion,
Katherine
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/