Mamasheepdog, I'll look it up in his paperwork and the vet receipt in a bit, for the moment I'm completely lazy and relaxing, didn't sleep well last night after all, lol!
Trinityoaks, they said they were too busy with regular appointments to "take in" an emergency. I'm really unhappy with that because one of the reasons I pay their insane prices is because they usually do emergency work and are often on-call after hours (all the other local vets refuse on-call or after-hours work, forcing people with emergencies to drive over an hour to the only emergency clinic...more on that below) but today when I called when they opened, they said they were booked with regular appointments. Now...once before I had an emergency, my dear and now-deceased Merlot had a problem and I rushed him in, and they made all their appointments wait so they could treat him for me. Usually if I say "This is an emergency" they get my pet in right away, especially if there's blood involved or one of my geriatric pets.
In desperation I called my dad's vet, and they said they too couldn't see him but they suggested another vet...I called and they said to come right in.
These days I refuse to go the emergency clinic. It is over an hour away, and they charge $200 just to walk through their door. Plus whatever they do to treat your pet is about three times as expensive as a normal vet, and they are TERRIBLE!!!
My first experience with them was when my fragile little puppy Cricket broke a leg. It was on a Saturday night about nine o' clock in the evening on a holiday weekend. My regular vet was on vacation and no vet could see her until Tuesday morning. I couldn't let her suffer for days with a badly broken leg, so I took her to the emergency clinic. She's broken bones before because she has a bone density problem and some developmental problems with her bone structure. They did it all wrong...and the only break she has that didn't heal well was theirs, the leg is now shorter than the others and deformed. Plus I always opt for pain medication when Cricket breaks something, it IS painful after all...well the first dose of what they perscribed her made her froth at the mouth, shake uncontrollably and she was nearly unconscious! When I finally got ahold of my regular vet, he looked at the fax from the emergency clinic and told me never to give her what they said to ever again, they gave her some form of medication that is only used on larger dogs. She was a whopping pound-and-a-half. It is a miracle they didn't kill her!!!!!!
The second time I went down there, Ember started puking blood...then POOPING blood. Bright fire-engine red from both ends. I was convinced she was dying. When we got her there, she had temporarily stopped. They charged me the $200, then basically told me I made it up because they couldn't find any cause of the bleeding and couldn't get any blood on a rectal swab. I insisted she was sick, they finally just told me to leave. Ten minutes out of their parking lot, Ember passed about a quart of blood and gunk. Her carrier was a SWAMP. I raced back and showed them, and they had the audacity to LAUGH at me (bearing in mind that at that moment I was in tears, Ember and I have a very special bond and it pains me to think of her suffering or dying) and say "Well at least now we have a sample!" I then had to fight and argue with them over the base fee...because I "left and came back" they wanted ANOTHER $200 for walking back through their door, I insisted that the only reason I left is because they made me. When I informed them that my attorney is on speed-dial and actually got out my phone to call him, they did back off and let me avoid the second fee. They did a lot of seemingly random tests, then after many hours of poking and prodding her, determined she has a penicillin allergy (she'd been on antibiotics for her chronic infections, and they switched her to a more effective one the day before the bleeding began) and told me not to continue her antibiotics. They said the blood is from irritation in her system from mucous membranes bleeding or something. They wrote a new prescription for her infection and administered some sort of tummy-soothing stuff, and sent her home.
Based on Cricket's botched medication prescription, I stopped off at my regular vet for his advice...he reviewed the faxes and said she does indeed seem to have a penicillin allergy. He then looked at the prescription they wrote for her, the new antibiotic.
She had been prescribed Clavamox. They said to stop giving her that. The new prescription? GENERIC AMOXICILLIN. For the record, Clavamox IS AMOXICILLIN.
My regular vet stared at it, with this look of total incomprehension, and said "Yeah, DON'T FILL THIS, this is basically the same stuff. WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT?!" That's right, on the same day they diagnose a penicillin allergy, they prescribe the generic form of the STUFF THAT THEY JUST DIAGNOSED HER TO BE ALLERGIC TO.
Needless to say my vet tore up their prescription and wrote a new one, one that she has taken before with no problems, and it is the same antibiotic she has to use for any infections now. Takes a little longer to get her over them but it's better than the red tide!!!!!!
Alas, known SO MANY people who have had major issues with the emergency clinic. Waste of money IMO. Hence waiting for the morning to try and get Bing in since my regular vet won't do on-call Fri thru Sun any more.
