Sophie had to go for a recheck on her little butt problem yesterday. Happily, it is doing much better - the vet said I should just stop in with her in a month so a tech can give it a quick check/squeeze. Poor little baby is now so terrified of the vet, she actually trembled like a leaf the minute I said we were going to the doctor. She shook from head to toe in the car, and I had to carry her into the office. Despite her terror she was perfectly behaved for the doctor and the tech, and happily we had a good report. She doesn't have to go through any further pain, or worse, surgery.
I need to think of someplace fun to take her in the car, so she stops associating car rides with something painful happening at the vet's office. She's such a good girl.
Poor Sophie, not just the pain, but the indignity !
ReplyDeleteThis is why I love our Vet like a brother: he has NO clinic, instead runs a mobile service. The Shoalhaven is a large area, one major town, several smaller ones and many villages. He has the territory divided into manageable chunks, and has a regular schedule. He visits Callala Bay and adjacent villages on Wednesday afternoons. But for a genuine emergency he will move heaven and earth. He is an excellent vet (I've got to know a LOT of vets in my time) handles his patients firmly but kindly.
He is NOT expensive, in fact in the case of a chronic condition, he does not charge for the visit, only for the drugs.
The big advantage: the patient can take courage from the fact that Paul is on their territory.
I also know for a fact that he sees keeping and eye on some of his elderly clients as part of his remit.
Wish I could pack him up and send him to Sophie.
Gae, in Callala Bay
Hannah and my other Yorkie both recognize(d) the route to the vet's office. Even if I try to outsmart them, at some point along the way, they will figure out where we're going and start to panic. Over the summer, there was road construction along the way to gramma's house, (my parents') and Hannah was very anxious in the car until she started to see familiar sites. She HATES the vet, so when she was younger, we practiced going there on a few Saturday mornings, and would just hang out for 15-20 minutes and eat Cheerios. It did help (a little.)
ReplyDeleteWe are ten minutes from our wonderful vet, Gae, and she didn't even charge me for her time yesterday! I'm not sure having the vet come to the house would help Sophie. For her it's that nearly ever vet visit has involved painful things happening to her tiny butt. She was all happiness and accepted a treat from the doctor after she realized the visit was over.
ReplyDeleteSophie knows the words "doctor" and "vet". Murphy does too, but for him it's "Hey, let's go see more people who will pet and tell me how cute I am!" He has had some major procedures but he took them in stride. Sophie loathes being left at the vet, and as soon as she realizes she's leaving with me, she cheers right up.
Ten minutes to the Vet - that's not too bad, when we still lived in Sydney we were 5 minutes from a magnificent Vet clinic. But here, we are nearly 30 minutes from a full time staffed clinic.
ReplyDeleteDear old Brutus of beloved memory, always hated Vet trips, and an Italian Greyhound can quiver and tremble better than any breed I know.
Even though he was as fit as a trout and never experienced anything worse than 'the op' and his regular vaccinations.
By the time we moved here and discovered Paul, Brutus was going blind, and although he loved hopping in the car, for short trips around the village, as soon as we hit the road out of the village he would panic, and 30 minutes of that is just brutal.
Brutus died in 2001 (pancreatic cancer) and we still miss him.
Gae, in Callala Bay
How are you, Catherine? We've been spoiled by the frequency of your posts, and you are missed. Hope all is well and you are just run-around busy!
ReplyDeleteWork plus computer issues plus wharrgarble. I am going to update more often, I swear!
ReplyDelete