happy with your vet?

[babydungeon]

this isn't really geared towards your veterinarian. it's aimed at the vets emergency program. i have had some terrible experiences lately with problems after hours that the emergency vet "hotline" was just crap. almost every clinic in the phone book advertises 24 hour emer. vet care. but when i call them the same person answers no matter what number i call. they don't seem to care or even be in a sense of urgency. i realize that the doctor's don't want to give their personal #'s out for every tom, dick, and harry will probably call them all the time for simple questions. i just want to know if there is a solution that will give immediate help to people and their pets in need without having to talk to some person on the phone that barely even knows what a dog is! sorry to vent but i'm very frustrated. -kevin

[emorgan49]

Yep - My vet is my sister! I STRONGLY recommend a vet in the family. Marry one..set your brother up to marry one...send your kid to vet school. The right relatives are very useful. I also have a lawyer SIL but what would also be useful is a dentist.

A phone and a digital camera takes care of the emergency decision making. I take a picture, email it to my sister/vet. Then we discuss whether to make the two hour drive tonight, tomorrow or next week.

PS. the price is right too.

[babydungeon]

must be nice. i think i'll divorce my wife and try and hook up with Dr. Fitzgerald from emergency vets on animal planet...wait no way what am i thinking. :D just kidding. no really, i have been looking into going to school to learn about becoming a vet for a long time now. when these crazy things come up i just hate that i don't know what to do. if i make it i will be the vet in the family.:D my brother in law is a hit man, everybody needs one of those in the family, anyone bothering you lately?

[SABELLESMOM]

Personally, I've never had a problem. Yes, they do cover for each other on wekends, Holidays, and off hours. I've always reached a real vet to the best of my knowlege. Are you hittling a snag? Are they using a receptionist to screen calls?
We had our cat choke on food and literally sieze and pass out on us. To get the picture right imagine my then 12 yrs old daughter (screaming) and I in the kitchen witnessing this horrible sight and my husband in the shower.
I yelled for DH, grabbed the cat, exited the door to the back porch and tried to heimlich the cat. At first this was to no avail. My husband was on the phone with the vet who was covering.
DH yelled for me to do mouth to snout but I hesitated only because the heimlich hadn't produced anything. He grabbed the cat tossed me the phone and did it. We got our cat back!
The vet patiently explained that the cat would not rescussitate spontaneously. In other words the head would "wake up" first, then the neck and front legs. She explained not to be frightened by this as it was "normal."
The cat was confused and woke up just as the vet had said, from front to back, at one time dragging her temporarily paralysed rear around, rather dazed. My husband even managed to keep the towel he'd wrapped quickly around himself on.
Our daughter survived as well.
The vet said the food was probably caught in the gullet rather than the trachea, which is why I had no Heimlich result. It presses against the trachea internally until Marty did the mouth to snout.
Did I tell you, to me the cat was totally DEAD! She'd even released both bowel and bladder! EW! What a mess!

Sorry that got long. Find out directly from your vet who you would be speaking with should you call an emergengy number. If it's not a vet, express your concerns.

[babydungeon]

well, i just wrote the whole entire reply now i have to start over. dungeon was bouncing his toy on my keyboard and somehow erased everything. okay, we were looking for almost the exact same response. her head to respond then her body and legs. after 2 hours of comforting, cooling down and checking temps, she finally blinked. then we got her to lightly lick some water we were feeding her. she then tried to get up and only her head moved. at first i thought she was seizing but it was because she was temporarily paralyzed. just when she started looking better i had to leave, which i will now regret for the rest of my life. i found out yesterday she didn't make it, she passed later that night. the thing that pissed me off was the emer. vet hotline thing. it was almost like having a telemarketer answer the phone. don't even want to get into what happened when i called, the first and second and third time. anyway, i called MY vet today, which i didn't but should have called because they are so far away for emergencies, they said someone ( i don't know who) will answer and take your name & # and have the 1 of 3 on call vets there call back immediately. she said they rotate on who's going to be on the 24 hour call thing. i explained to her, a vet tech, what happened and she doesn't think they use the same service as the others. i'm going to ask the doctor when i talk to him next. Good job on saving your cat, i wish i could have done the same.:(

[rompinrottie]

I so happy with my vet I think she is wonderful, :) she is always there when I need her, she doesnt charge for emergencys, :D
shes on call if I ever need her, for the elderly people who love there pets if they cant afford the vets bills she tells them pay $10.00 a month until your bill is paid and if you cant afford that dont worry about it and thats what she tells the elderly people, so I think my vet is great she really cares about animals, she cries when a poor animal has to be put down, :(
she takes alot of money out of her pocket for some people for vet care, she is really a wonderful person, and she doesnt just take your ""dog"" in and bang boom look at him and your out of there, she takes your "precious pet in talks to your pet pets him all over talks with the owner of the pet takes her time. I have see vets that treat animals like there a peice of meat and man hadle there pets its like wow! but not my vet she is really cool.. so I will stay with her until she retires, lol ;)

rompinrottie

[babydungeon]

you are so lucky! what a wonderful person. i am just praying that things go right because i don't know where to start, i want to study to become a vet. i'm sure that's exactly how i would be. i just love animals. money isn't everything, if it was i wouldn't have come into the air force. i was making 4 times the amount of money before, just no benefits. anyway, too bad more aren't like her. maybe i'll move to maine!;)

[Triple Rotten]

Kevin I am so sorry.
I am gratful to say that my Vet and my Emergency Vet are Great!
I have called both some many times for what now seems to be very simple little things. The ER told me how to clean a "chomp" and how to determine if they needed to see it or if it could wait until my regular vet was open. They have also put my kitty back together after getting a punture wound from unknown dog. Everybody is UTD on shots.
Not that it helps for you right now but I interveiwed the ERs is my area. It just so happened that the one I was most impressed with happened to be the closest,it is a bonus. I would go further out(within reason) if it seemed to give better service and compassion.
Thoughts are wth you.

[reba]

for emergencies. Yes it is pricey but it is 45 minutes from our house, they are there 24/7 and most of the time the local vets just stabilize and send them on to MSU anyway, so I figure I am saving time in the long run. MSU did an emergency vet show on animal planet last season. Do you have a vet school near you?

[Grendl]

The veterinary association in our county supports an emergency clinic that is open and staffed from 6PM to 8AM M-F, and 24 hrs on weekends. I have had to utilize their services, and was satisfied with both the treatment and the price. This seems like a relatively good idea, next to having one in the family!

[ILoveRotts]

Sorry to hear about your problems.

Too bad you don't live in the suburbs of Chicago. We have a great emergency hospital 5 minutes from our house. We've had to use it a few time unfortunatley but they were absolutely wonderful!

I also just found a wonderful regular Vet. I am sooooo happy! My Drake just loves her too. (I used to have to muzzle him at the vet but no more!)

[babydungeon]

i really like my new vet. sometimes because of traffic it can take up to an hour to get there but i don't mind a bit. that's how much i like him and can't stand the old one. for emergencies though it may be a bit far. i talked to him the other day about what happened and they use their own emergency service or number which is great. i accidentally used it saturday! i called at 4 pm thinking they were open, they close at 2, and asked for him. the lady asked for my # and said she would page him. i thought she meant page him over the intercom at work. he calls like 3 minutes later!:D i still didn't know he was not at work until later in the conversation but i was happy that he called back so soon. even though it wasn't an emergency he still talked to me for about 10 minutes, he's so down to earth and listens to ME, the other vet interrupted alot. i'm glad i found him. no, there is not a vet school around here, if there were i would be attending right now i assure you. -kevin

[whitney greenway]

I love my vet (s). They have always been there during office hours, and after hours, they have always responded to a call very promptly.

Also, I have a friend who happens to be a vet, so either way I have it covered.

[SABELLESMOM]

We are very pleased with our Vet, to say the least. He is pleasant, congenial, personable, highly informative and always gives options for care.
Many of you may not be aware, but our Cocker Spaniel is a rescue and has some issues particularly about being left somewhere. Our wonderful vet let himself be convinced I should take him home after having his teeth scaled instead of leaving him overnight. We'd had a bad result before, and he did not discount our feelings. Maybe me being an RN helped, but it was Digbee who benefited.
Sable, Digbee, Jasmine and Sweetie Pie are individuals and he KNOWS each personality very well. He makes us feel as though he considers them as important and loving as we do.
Perhaps he does. He sent a sympathy card and the office made a condolence call after we had Candy-Sue put to sleep (due to old age). He knew how Sable did at show before we told him...He's a great guy!

[poohbearsmom]

The thing that should piss you off, is not that YOU left, she wasn't your dog. I personally have less than a happy feeling for the owners, who didn't want to put out the $$ to save her, by taking her to a vet that night. It's like I told your wife that night, I'd have written a check to the vet, then found some way to get the funds in the bank the next day, if it were my dog, and $$ was the issue, which it apparently was.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, do not, in any way blame yourself for what happened. You went WAY above and beyond the call, and for that, her owners are indebted, whether they realize it or not.

Back to the topic, this is a concern for folks in your area, and probably other less urban areas such as yours. You have one answering service for all the vets, and no emergency vet clinic.
I'd be interested to find out if the vets in your area would get together, to see if it's feesible for them to work out a plan that would enable folks to get their pets in right away when tragedy strikes.

Here in Tallahassee (which is far from urban..lol), we have an after hours emergency clinic - various vets/techs work different nights, and it's a cooperative thing.

Hugs, Elisabeth