| It's sort of funny I guess... we just mailed out the last newsletter and our web host shut off all our websites because we hadn't paid our bill on time. That's why none of the links worked in the previous newsletter -- you can read it again with working links here: http://www.ferretnews.com/issues/ferret-news-97.html Personally, I went from being a successful programmer for Nintendo when I was 25 and living in a HUGE house on the beach to being a publisher of a ferret magazine that couldn't stay afloat. Now I'm near 40 and living in my mother's finished garage and don't even have enough money to cover website hosting. Who would have thought? No one can predict his or her financial future. I can fully understand how one can wind up in the situation where they can't afford veterinary bills for their ferrets. In fact, you could read a previous newsletter by me on why ferrets get so expensive: http://www.ferretnews.com/issues/ferret-news-54.html So if you can't afford veterinary care for your ferret (or think you can't) -- then try to think of alternatives. Try to find a cheaper vet. Try to find one that will take a payment plan. Try to work out a trade of services (you might even like being a vet's assistant -- it could be the start of a new career!). Try to find a cheaper medical solution. (For many conditions, expensive surgery is the best treatment option, but there are also cheaper drugs that will at least help your ferret to feel better and have a better quality of life.) A quick aside:
When we started Modern Ferret magazine in 1994, it was much cheaper to drive to Maryland and stay in a hotel for a weekend while your ferret had adrenal surgery than it was to get an adrenal surgery done locally (we live on Long Island in New York). As a bonus, the vets in Maryland had a lot more experience in treating ferrets. Always look for options!
However, the examples I've pointed out in recent newsletters are not from people who say they can't afford vet care, they're from people who never even considered the thought of bringing a sick animal to the vet. There's a huge difference between not being able to afford vet care for your ferret and not being willing to seek vet care for your ferret. Some of the readers have said of our recent newsletters that we lack compassion for those who don't have the money to pay for vet visits. Those readers need to re-read the last two newsletters more carefully: http://www.ferretnews.com/articles/most-common-ferret-questions-ferret-faq.html http://www.ferretnews.com/issues/ferret-news-97.html The example emails in the last newsletter said nothing about not being able to afford vet care -- they didn't mention vet care at all, which is the problem! We have been in situations where we've had to pay off our vet over time because we didn't have the money at the time to pay for needed vet care (we still owe a balance on our vet bill from emergency situations last year). But we did whatever we had to in order to care for the ferrets in our family. We have answered many emails helping people figure out ways to pay for or arrange vet care for a ferret when the person found himself or herself unable to pay for vet care. In the last newsletter, I pointed out that ferrets can quickly become expensive pets to care for. That should be a wake-up call for anyone who is on a limited or fixed income. It isn't that you shouldn't have pets, but you do need to be very much aware of how much it can cost to care for those pets. If you can afford two ferrets, don't get three or four. Certainly don't get ten or twenty! Know your limits. You don't do any ferrets any favors by taking them in when you can't afford to give them proper care. Of course, all ferrets deserve loving homes, but part of loving a ferret is making sure he or she gets the medical attention he or she needs. Know your limits. This is why we haven't added any more ferrets to our home. Again, see here for more: http://www.ferretnews.com/issues/ferret-news-54.html But that's not the point. The point is that if your ferret is sick, he or she needs to see a vet. That seeing a vet doesn't even occur to some ferret owners is very disturbing. If you recognize your ferret is ill and you do the best you can for your ferret, this is not about you. Not everyone has a huge pile of money (we certainly don't!). But everyone can do the best they can to make their cherished pets comfortable. Plus there are many vets who will either help you work a payment plan or will help you find a less expensive treatment that will at least improve your ferret's quality of life. This is all about the people who see that their ferret is ill and do nothing because it never occurred to them to bother. (And there are plenty of these people -- we get their emails every day.) There are way too many people who never take their ferrets to the vet. Not for checkups, not for vaccinations, not for serious diseases. They just treat them like light bulbs -- bright things that burn out in a few years and then you throw them out and replace them. If you don't believe me, look at these questions we get all the time: http://www.ferretnews.com/articles/most-common-ferret-qu estions-ferret-faq.html I'll repeat this: If you are someone who finds the advice that sick ferrets should get proper medical care from a veterinarian to be "rude" or "obnoxious" or "cruel" -- then please go down to the bottom of this email where it says "to unsubscribe/change profile" and use the link to remove yourself from this newsletter. You are wasting our money by making us send this newsletter to you. (And we already know how you treat your ferrets.) Why are we harping on this so much? Because ferrets deserve to be treated with respect. They deserve to be a part of a family that cares about them, that will be as diligent as possible about caring for their health and well-being, that will not overburden themselves financially to the point where none of the ferrets gets proper care. We're harping on this because ferrets suffer even in homes where they are loved because people don't think. -- Eric
Coupon Code If you've gotten all the way down to this part of the newsletter, here's your reward: You can save $3.00 on any order of $30.00 or more until March 29, 2005, at FerretDesigns and AmysDesigns by using the Coupon Code: 3CPSALE You can shop at both these stores at the same time -- they both feed into the same shopping cart: http://www.cafepress.com/ferretdesigns http://www.cafepress.com/amysdesigns
| 
modernferret.com
