I have exceeded my capacity to write much further about yesterday’s little drama, so feel free to go to the my corgi blog and read all about it. [?? I do not know why this link isn’t working. Enter this URL instead: mycorgi.com/profiles/blogs/parvo-really]
Not for an instant do I believe Ruby has parvo (forgodsake!). For the past hour she’s been flinging herself around pestering Cassie, barking at the neighbors, racing up and down the hall squeaking a toy, stealing a sandal and banging it on the wall, climbing on top of me, grabbing Cassie’s ball, and (let us never forget) chasing cockroaches around the backyard. This is not the behavior of a dog that is trying to slip past Cerberus and sneak into Hades.
What I do believe is that last night I encountered an unethical veterinarian who took one look at an old lady with a puppy of an expensive breed and heard the cash register ring.
The pet industry in this country (and make no mistake: that is what it is officially called — even vets will tell you they’re part of the pet industry) is a vast cash cow. There is so much money to be made in fleecing people who are besotted by their animals, it cannot even be estimated.
I should have known when I drove up there and saw signs in the parking lot reading “Reserved for Pet Parents.”
Pet parents! SNORT!!!
That is a trope whose purpose is to encourage people to conflate their animals with their children. Once they have you thinking about your dog or your cat as though it were your child, it’s easy to play on your emotions and get you to fork over any amount of money the various merchandisers in the pet industry choose for whatever service, medication, food, tool, doodad, or piece of kitsch they can come up with.
Parvo, indeed. I’m still so mad, just thinking about it, I could throw this computer across the room!
There are some unethical guys out there. Last time we had our guys to the vet for shots there was an older couple getting a “second opinion” on their cat that was suffering from failing kidneys. Another vet had suggested ….”a transplant”….Our vet, I could here from the next room, was telling them that it wasn’t a real good option because of cost…age of the cat….and chance of survival. Will share that friends of ours cat was acting lethargic…throwing up…couldn’t control urine…etc. The vet did some testing and concluded that the cat got a hold of a mouse, squirrel or bug that had poison in it and the cat was poisoned when it consumed the varment. …the cat recovered after a ouple of weeks. Maybe the pup is being poisoned by “snacking” on the cock roaches which have ingested bug spray…YIKES!!!
“Some”? How about the woods are full of them???? Arrrrghhhhh! The more I think about this episode, the madder I get.
Most likely my pet roaches are harmless. I don’t spray; my neighbor Terri’s house hasn’t seen a bug guy since the character tried to tell her that her eucalyptus (!!!!!!!) tree was harboring termites (heeee!). Besides, by and large the little guys can outrun Pup, at least in a short sprint to cover.
No. The problem is my having foisted four or five different commercial dog foods on this animal, in short succession.
It is my tinfoil-hat suspicion (sometimes rising to “belief”) that commercial dog foods contain something that causes an animal to suffer gastric distress when switched from one commercial product to another. The idea being, of course, to pressure the owner to keep the animal on Product A even if Product B may have some advantage.
When you feed your dog real food, NOTHING HAPPENS when you change from product to product. Cassie can shift from beef to fish to chicken to turkey to pork, from rice to oatmeal to quinoa to bread to cornmeal to pasta, from broccoli to carrots to peas to beets to asparagus to spinach as smoothly as you and I can. The same was true of the German shepherd and the greyhound, both of which (WHICH, godammit, not “whom”!) also ate real food.
But take a dog and shift it from Purina to Science Diet, and you’ll have diarrhea forthwith. Is that unintentional? Why do I think not.
Please don’t let your cat roam around loose, for cryin’ out loud. Besides committing amazing depredation on native wildlife (in some cases driving species extinct) and annoying the neighbors, the poor beast is put at risk of being run over, attacked by dogs, poisoned by leaking antifreeze (one of our cats suffered that fate — not pleasant, we might add), poisoned by vermin that has ingested bait or spray, eaten by coyotes, tortured by nasty children and psychopaths, shot or poisoned or trapped by the angry neighbors, and carried off by hawks.
Holy god. A kidney transplant…for a cat.
Oh my, I missed that last post… what a nightmare. I’m one that is quite unfriendly to vets these days… hope it passes. But we took our dear Star to the vet the day before she passed. The doctor just gave her some injections and some pills to force down her throat (which ended up making her feel MUCH worse, and we had to discontinue using it). She got no rest that night. I felt very betrayed, and though I didn’t mind spending $380 for that visit, I felt like they should’ve AT LEAST made her feel a bit better… or something. Sorry, just bitter about the whole vet deal. I know I’ll never go to them ever again. They may be ok, but that was just a really bad experience.
I’m sorry about your pet. It’s painful to lose a pet even if you know it’s elderly or very sick. IMHO, the lingering suspicion that some vets take advantage of your distress doesn’t help that pain.
At least Ruby is feeling better. Let us know what your regular vet has to say.
Regular vet’s staff was annoyed when they advised me to take the dog to a pet emergency room and I said I can’t afford a place that charges $200 for you to put your hand on the doorknob and twice that when you walk in the door. Really, I’ve GOT to learn to say “yes, dear” in these cases.
In general, the folks who work for vets are the sort who would pay anything to keep their animals alive, up to and including kidney transplants and the like — they simply can NOT understand that some of us do love our dogs but have to prioritize spending on them.
Today pup is well. She’s eating the Real Food with gusto, playing like a little pistol, and evidently over the doggyrrhea.
I am glad the pup seems better, hope it continues.
I have no comment on the dog food conspiracy, our dogs never had those problems.
I have been very lucky, I guess, with vets. Childhood pet vets were good, and the vets [we moved] who took care of our [hubby & mine] cats and dog were good and kind and let us know when they did not think a treatment was worth the money. Our last cat’s vet, when we took him to be put to sleep, was really good, explained what would happen, gave us time with MrT both before and after the shot, and sent us a sympathy card later.
And just this week, I called a local vet re: a hot spot on the tail of the dog we were sitting for our son, who was sitting for this dog for his ex.
They did not say to come in, although she did say that in order to diagnose the cause the dog would have to be seen. The person on the phone said keep it dry, use a collar, could use hot spot spray, and as long as it didn’t get worse wait the 2 or 3 days for the ex to return home.
All in all, I feel lucky and blessed that we have had more good than bad from the medical side most of the time.
Heh heh. I love my dog food conspiracy theory and think I will craft some special tinfoil hats for sale to fellow believers. They could have nylon squirrel ears and tails for decoration. 😀
Vets are a lot like doctors, and both are a lot like human beings. They come in all flavors. My own preference in both vets and doctors is one who is calm, conservative, and imbued with common sense. Others may like a vet or a doctor who’s primed to leap into the fray at the slightest provocation, or who in good faith would rather overtreat — just in case — than undertreat and miss something.
The thing that bothers me about some veterinary practices — especially the ones that now are part of large chains — is their tendency to try to frighten pet owners into buying into regular exams and unnecessary treatments. Did you realize, for example, that after a certain point in a dog’s life, there’s really no need for yearly vaccinations? That in some parts of the country there’s no need to have your dog on heartworm meds all the time? That among each other, vets will admit that customers are persuaded to get yearly vaccines SO THAT they have to bring the dog int0 the office for a (much more profitable) annual exam? And don’t you at all resent being put on hold and made to listen to advertising messages, some of it rather scary in tone, for services that you and your dog do not need?
IMHO, you should go to the doctor or to the vet when you have symptoms. You should get your teeth cleaned annually, and maybe you should have a very few screening tests performed once every year to three years. But by and large, you should not be running in to the doc for annual fishing expeditions — and neither should your pet.
And, tinfoil hat or not, I strongly believe the profit motive in all kinds of healthcare — for humans and for animals — has a dangerous potential to lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment.