the Cost of Emergency Veterinarian Care

I have a three-year-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever. As I'm sure you have guessed, she loves water (she is named after a body of water for goodness sakes)! One warm, summer afternoon, I took my dog swimming in the local lake. Unfortunately, she has a weak GI tract, which I did not know about until then. The next day, my usually energetic, dog was very lethargic and did not feel much like playing. I thought this to be strange but thought she may just have been tired from all of the exercise the day before. However, later that evening she began to throw up blood and blood was in her stool when she went to the bathroom. I quickly called the veterinarian's office who was about to close. They gave me the number to a local emergency/after-hours vet so I quickly called them. They suggested I bring her right in, so I did. The service of the doctors and their assistants were terrible! My dog sat in one of the waiting rooms still throwing up blood and no being able to control when she went to the bathroom. After a long wait, the doctor took my dog in the back, shaved part of her leg above her paw and hooked her up to an IV to make up for all of the fluids she was loosing. I'm not exactly sure what the name of the medicines were, but she was also hooked up to two different types of medicines to settle her stomach. My dog, who never stays in a kennel, had to stay the night. I went first thing the next morning to pick her up. They said she was still nowhere close to being better and they were still not sure what was wrong with her. They suggested I take her to a local veterinarian's office and handed me a bill. The single night stay cost over $300, plus $550 for the medicine and fluids that were given to her. I left the emergency clinic with a sick dog and was already $850 poorer! I took her to the local vets office where they hooked her up to more IV's, sent her home and said she needed more rest. The bill here was $150 for just a few hours of fluids. In total I spent about $1,000 for about a two day vet visit and they still did not know what was wrong with my puppy. I took her back to school with me in Athens, GA and to her vet down there. They quickly looked her over, told me she had a weak GI tract gave me a bottle of antibiotics worth $10, and told me to put her on a diet of rice and broth for a few days. I took her home, gave her the medicine and the food and she was better in no time!

The service at the emergency clinic was the worst. The doctors and their assistants were rude and seemed to have no clue what they were doing. After the experience was over, I felt as though they could have cared less about my dog and only cared about my money. I will never go here again! On top of the rude service, the expense was ridiculous and the problem was not even fixed.

Make sure if you have a pet you check out all of the emergency services in your area. Have other pet owners give you their opinion and experience with the business. Also, make sure if you are not always in the same location (town) you have an emergency facility in both locations because you may not always be able to get a hold of your regular veterinarian. Hope this helps so people do not have to deal with what we had to deal with!