About a year ago, our local veterinary clinic had an exodus of employees, with the exception of the owner/main guy. We were not sure what happened, but we did hear that they were opening a new clinic kind of far away. That was a shame, we could not drive an hour to care for our dogs, and we figured the new people the Vet got in were competent.
But then when this business began with Jack, we started to notice that some things were just wrong. The first indicator was when I first took him in for tests. We had an 8am appointment, and did not even see the veterinarian for an hour and fifteen minutes. Finally, when he came in, it was a young new guy I have never met before and an even younger assistant. He took Jack’s blood and told us it would be about fifteen minutes before we got the results. An hour passed and we still did not have them. Then, in the same room, a raucous laugh fest of high school proportions breaks out over someone’s purse or something. Just a really trivial matter that resulted in tons of laughter.
While stull chuckling, the new vet guy brings in the test results, and lays them on me. My dog has renal failure. Wow, sure glad it was such a laughing matter to him.. I did not find it funny at all. In fact, it took about all I had not to knock the guy down. Like previoulsy mentioned, I am working on my temper, but I am not out of the woods on that myself. Ten years ago he would have been bleeding from the mouth after that.
So, needless to say, I could no longer go back to that vet. Kate took over checkup duties with him. We kept getting the same patented message at the end of each visit.. “Call us for anything, anytime if you feel its important.” Sure, but what they did not say is they would call back. All week my wife played phone tag with a perky, yet condescending, receptionist who was also new. We never got the calls back on his test results we were waiting for, and this morning she literally had to go into the Vet and demand them. The man who did his initial exam could not even make eye contact with her.
Something else happened in serendipity manner. With some investigation, we found the people who left his practice did not in fact open a clinic far away, but actually quite near. We have now transferred to the new Vet, and took Jack in for an exam this morning. The prognosis was much more in depth.. and informative. Questions we had did not even need to be asked.. they covered it. (Unlike the last vet which required a pry-bar to get any info out of.)
Jack’s condition is looking up some. We have new medicines, including a medicinal IV that will help his poor tummy when it it hurting. So no worries about trying to get medicine in his stomach that he has to eat.. because he has not been eating, it has been impossible to get that medicine in him. And he was spiralling downward fast.
Today he ate some pork chopped finely after being boiled and some rice. He loved it.. I still could not get him to touch the powder medicine that is for his kidney health.. but by now he might have some powerful association with that and being sick. Its going to probably be a syringe down the back of the throat with that stuff, as well as his medication daily. He is going to hate me by the time we are done.
It really bothers me that the first vet that we have been going to for years had a complete turn over in his office. It bothers me more that everyone he hired looked fresh out of high school. And it bothered my wife the most that the vet had to show the young assistant girl how to hold the dog while blood was being drawn. We are not paying $120 for a vet visit to give her an internship. In the end, we no longer trust their experience or their ability. We needed this switch for our peace of mind, in addition to our dog’s continuing health.
The old “new” vet remembered our dogs from an incident involving our beagle and an emergency hurt leg incident from two years back. That was an immediate positive sign that someone who cares is now in charge of my dog’s medical care again. Pardon my french, but Fuck the people at the other clinic.. they were giving us the minimum and charging the maximum. There is no doubt in my mind had we not made this switch, that Jack would not last much longer and be in pain. As it stands right now, he does seem a little agitated, but he has an appetite (for human food at least) and for two days now he has not thrown up… and nothing from our former clnic really to thank for it.
If you want to know the name of the bad vet in Wilmington OH, contact me privately.
My little buddy looks like he MIGHT be getting better, keep those toes crossed.
In other news, I am now a line “chef” at the local high end hotel and restaurant kitchen. I start an orientation at 4pm tomorrow.. which gives me plenty of time before I leave to wrestle with Jack’s finicky eating habits. Here too, experience mattered, and I am happy that twice in the past I have cooked at other restaurants. It helped. My wife’s association with the farmer’s market probably had a lot to do with me getting hired, but ultimately it was just great timing.. I rolled in to fill out an application just when they were starting to get desperate to fill the position.
Luck, it would seem, is once again on my side. For now.
givethedogabone 