File :-(, x, )
Mutt !!mIF4ZkWn+B/
So this morning by some stroke of bad luck my one-year-old male ferret managed to get onto the walled balcony of my house and scale it. Then he slid down the roof and onto the lawn, dislocating his elbow.
I took him to the vet by my house and had him x-rayed and they confirmed that he had it dislocated and it would require a surgery that they couldn't perform themselves so they told me to go to the learning hospital and have them do it.
They told me that he would need a surgery to relocate it but it was likely that he would go through ferret madness and manage to dislocate it again before it had time to heal and scheduled an appointment for tomorrow morning after giving him a painkiller shot.
On the way home he was pretty knocked out, probably stoned but when I got home after the hour-and-a-half traffic the elbow was somehow replaced though he walks with a slight limp. My theory is that the painkiller relaxed his muscles enough to allow the joint to lock back together but I could be wrong. I don't know what drug they gave him but I assume it was an opioid or perhaps a benzo because of it's sedative effects.
Should I go back? Do you think he will be fine without the surgery?
Advice, please.
>> Anonymous
very yes

it's possible that it fixed itself but no sense in risking it if it didn't
>> Anonymous
Find a better vet. I am not a doctor, but it's pretty damn weird to hear about surgery for a dislocated joint. I think they care more about your money than about your ferret.
>> Mutt !!mIF4ZkWn+B/
>>274733
It was a learning hospital at a government-funded public veterinarian school. The surgery would only cost about $25 including anesthesia and a little more for follow-up. This was the opinion of not one but three different vets at two different places.
The doctor at the learning hospital was training to be a specialist in small and exotic pets. They make little-to-no money for doing extra procedures and do this to invest in their future in private practice.
I've decided that I should give him a couple of days to try to walk it off. He seems fine now but I don't know how he will be in the morning. I expect that he was limping because he was sore/bruised by the 10-foot fall. The strange thing is that during all of this the only time he expressed any pain was when he got is injection and he bit the guy who gave it to him.
If he seems to be getting worse then I will take him to see the vet again but I hope that he's fine and will not need to be put under and have to undergo an hour-long procedure with a long recovery.