Your Surgeon's Experience and Skill Level

When we consider the surgeon performing the surgery, there are subcomponents to consider, including:

Let's look at each in more detail. Remember, as you read these, some of these points may seem most important to some clients, while other points may be clearly more important to other clients. All of these points, however, will influence the outcome.

Surgeon's Experience and Skill Level

The surgeon's experience and skill level will have a profound effect on the results of the procedure. The experience and skill level we are discussing here is specifically that of ferret surgery. There are many excellent veterinarians who are wonderful human beings who may not have the experience and skill level you require to perform surgery on your ferret.

What should be the optimal experience and skill level of my ferret's surgeon?

The optimal experience and skill level of the surgeon should be as much as possible. This involves not only successfully treating a number of ferrets but also treating a variety of their diseases. The experience that is most important is that with ferret surgery, specifically the surgery your ferret needs. Since it is common for ferrets to have more than one disease concurrently, it is essential that your ferret's surgeon be experienced in both the procedure that your ferret requires and the other common ferret surgeries, including adrenal tumors, insulinoma, lymph node and intestinal biopsies and surgery, liver tumor removal and biopsy, and splenectomy (removal of the spleen). Equally important is your surgeon's experience with post-operative care and managing ferret diseases long-term.

But how much experience is the right amount?

There is no magic number, but ideally the surgeon should have performed many of these procedures and continue to do ferret surgery on a regular basis. Remember, the experience level is experience performing ferret surgery. There are many veterinarians who know a great deal about ferret diseases and surgery but do not have experience performing ferret surgery. Just because a veterinarian can talk a great deal about ferret surgery, that alone does not equal experience. Knowledge of ferret surgery is a great start, but the experience I'm talking about is experience, not watching or knowing, but doing.

To make an analogy

You could have someone who knows everything about computers and computer parts, but if they don't routinely repair computers, they may not be the right person to get advice from or to fix your computer.

What skill level should I look for in my ferret's surgeon?

Your ferret's surgeon's skill level is different from his or her experience level. To illustrate the difference, let's take the example of communication. Most people have a large amount of experience communicating. But a much smaller percentage of people are skilled communicators (based on how effective we are). A second important distinction is that although experience can lead to a high level of skill, experience, in and of itself, does not guarantee skill. Results are the most important sign of a surgeon's skill level.

The surgeon's skill level is partly to do with natural ability and partly related to his or her eagerness to always be open to learning better techniques. Therefore, a particular veterinarian may be very knowledgeable about ferrets, a great ferret doctor, a kind person, and yet not be very surgically skilled. As a result, the surgery outcomes will not be optimal.

Surgical skill is based upon both knowledge and ability. First, the surgeon must know how to do all of the procedures and how to handle any potential complication or problem that may arise. Second, the surgeon must have a great aptitude or ability for surgery. This requires hand-eye coordination and concentration under pressure. The first (hand-eye coordination) some people just naturally have. These are people with the desire, knowledge, and focus, who tend to be the top surgeons. Although natural, innate hand-eye coordination is best, with practice, hand-eye coordination can improve if the desire is present.

This leads us to our final question about the skill of ferret surgeons.

“How can I know the experience and skill level of my ferret's surgeon?”
The best way to determine the experience and skill level of your ferret's surgeon is by asking questions about the experience (how many and what type of procedures performed) and the skill level (results).

Who can I ask these questions?

You can ask these questions of the surgeon, the hospital staff, clients, and other people (other veterinarians, other ferret owners). As you ask these questions, you may want to know several things about the person giving you the information, including their integrity and the number of experiences on which the person bases the information being given to you. Are they basing their information on one case, 100 cases, or 1,000 cases?

In order to trust information given to you, it is important to know the integrity level of the person giving you the information. The more certain you feel a person's integrity level is high, the more value you can place on the person's response. If you have never met or seen the person (as happens frequently over the internet), you may want to put less weight on what they say, since you have no point of reference for their level of personal integrity. You be the judge, but it is something to consider.

While the integrity of the person giving you the information is a key factor, another consideration is the number of cases the information is based on. The higher the number of cases the person has been exposed to, the more valid the information will be. For example, if a particular surgery has a 90% survival rate, this means 1 out of every 10 ferrets won't survive. If an owner whose ferret who did not survive the procedure gives you his/her perspective on the surgery, the information you get may be that the procedure is terrible, the doctor is terrible, or the hospital is terrible – but it may not be accurate. Conversely, if a surgeon has a 10% survival rate for his/her patients, and an owner whose ferret survived the procedure gives you his/her perspective, the information you get may be that the procedure was great, the doctor was great, and the hospital was great, but in reality, most ferrets don't survive procedures with that given surgeon. So, be sure you know how many cases the information is based on – the best way to do this is to ask people.

What are some of the questions we should ask to help us determine the skill level and experience of our ferret's surgeon?

The last comment before we list the questions you should ask your surgeon before your ferret has a procedure performed is that there is no set answer. However, I would try to find the surgeon with the most experience and the highest skill level that you feel comfortable with.

Before you commit to surgery, ask your ferret's surgeon:

How many cases like this have you performed surgery on?
How many ferret surgeries do you do each week or month?
How long have you been performing surgery on ferrets?
What are the results of cases like this?
What is the success rate of this surgery?
What is the mortality rate of this surgery?
What are the potential complications of the surgery and how common are they?

What is the experience and skill level of Dr. Weiss?

Over the last 15 years, I have had the privilege of performing thousands of ferret surgeries. Since my experience is so vast, I have seen many different variations of most of the ferret tumors. As a result, I have experience with a wide range of routine and challenging cases. With the large number of cases I have handled in combination with the challenging cases that are referred to me, I have been fortunate enough to become very adept and skillful at ferret procedures and surgery.

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