Taking Speck to the vet is one of my very least favorite things to do. He’s fragile. He’s beyond grumpy. It’s about a 40 mile round trip and all I can do is drive out there, and drive back because I can’t leave Speck in the car while I run in the grocery store or anywhere else.
Speck is such a biter! When we walk into the vet, he goes into full panic mode and will bite me if I’m not careful so as soon as I get there, we have to put a muzzle on him and then he’s fighting trying to get that off . . which is how he ripped out a nail at our previous vet.
I have a love/hate relationship with our vet. Most of the time he’s totally friendly and nice. Sometimes . . not so much. The staff . . it’s more often than not that the main lady I interact with is NOT friendly. He is the vet who sent the sample from Speck’s nasal discharge and figured out what was wrong, when the previous vet had been unsuccessfully treating him for a couple of years. But, he’s also the vet who looked at Rita’s eyes and said “They look fine to me!” and I took her to a different vet the next week and he suggested we take her to the vet in Austin and have her checked for glaucoma. You know the rest of that story.
I’ve switched all of Rita’s treatment – shots, nail trim, glands expressed . . everything to the vet in Abilene who checks her eyes. I like them but there are multiple vets there. Three trips and I’ve seen three different vets and feel like I’m getting three different answers sometimes but I think that’s probably just the nature of glaucoma. I’m not crazy about having her vet almost 2 hours away but we’ve been to just about every vet in town and for one reason or another, decided it wasn’t the place for us. I’ve not ever been a picky patient but we haven’t had good luck with vets here.
So . . back to my story . . every day this week, for several weeks really, I’ve been saying I have to get Speck to the vet. It’s so much easier to take him when Vince goes with me but the vet’s office can be a bit of a zoo on Saturday. This morning I was sitting and knitting and said . . I’m doing it! I put the knitting down in the middle of a row, called to make sure the vet was in, and did it.
What’s funny is that the local vet (just the one we’re using . . not all the vets in town!) is so inexpensive. The vet in Abilene charged $25 to express Rita’s glands. The vet here charges $5.
When I took Speck in this morning, he got his rabies vaccine, nails trimmed and another round of antibiotics for the nasal issue. I went to check out and the lady said $26. I said “Oh, no . . he got a rabies vaccine too.” She read it all off to me . . $26 was right.
Old Speck
Even after we got home, he was not trusting me and kept a watchful eye on me. He doesn’t look like a 17 year old dog, does he? The vet was laughing at how hard Speck was trying to bite him . . even with a muzzle on. The vet said “He’s still a tiger!”
Old Speck
After a little while, he calmed down and is ready to sleep the afternoon away. I’m thinking that’s a good idea.
A funny thing . . I keep a sheet in the car for the dogs. After taking Rita to the vet Monday, I brought the sheet in to wash it. It was in the dryer so I grabbed it to put it in the car for Speck. I would say Rita “saw” it but . . somehow she knew I had that sheet and she thought she was going on a road trip. I almost never got out of the house without her. She was determined she was going! How did she know that was her sheet? I would guess everything that comes out of our washer/dryer smells pretty much the same but somehow, she knew I had the sheet that goes in the car and she was determined she was going with me.
wanda j says
Is it just me or just maybe she can see more than they think? Like you said everything comes out of dryer smells the same so how did she know it was her sheet? I really question her site at this point. But I’m not a doctor but how for sure can they be. She can’t tell them she can’t see. They are just going by how her eyes looks to them. Maybe she has adapted to a little site who knows for sure. But I’m with you she sees something I bet. For awhile a least still.Just my 2 cents worth. And Speck heck he is just a little old man in a dog body look at it that way and get a laugh when you do.” Just leave me alone I’m doing fine. “GIVE ME THE REMOTE AND CUP OF COFFEE”. Look at his attiude like that.
montanaclarks says
We have one vet clinic in Big Timber, MT–three awesome veterinarians–the best! We had a great vet in Wickenburg near our previous AZ home. It’s another story at our current AZ home–I took Emmi to the vet closest to our place once last year just to get a prescription med–that was a nightmare. Female vet with a chip on her shoulder who wanted me to pay for $298 worth of blood work before she would fill my prescription. THAT didn’t happen and she said, “I will only give you one month of this medication until you have the blood work done.” I thought to myself, “lady, give me one month, that’s all I need because I won’t make this mistake again!” Our vets here in MT gave me enough of the meds to last me all winter this time! The next nearest vet in AZ is about an hour away and gets good online reviews. I worry about Emmi getting bitten by a rattlesnake and it taking me over an hour to get to the vet–she is vaccinated for rattlesnake bites but she is so tiny–I guess we will deal with it if and when it ever happens! I had a dachshund in a previous life and he was just like Speck only he was much, much younger, he only lived to be about five years old. Grumpy, would bite you in a second and extremely yappy–but we loved him and were heartbroken when he died.
Vivian Oaks says
Vets in this part of the country are expensive!! You can’t even walk in the door without being charged $60… That’s one of the reasons I finally gave up my animals. I just couldn’t afford them anymore. I’d be thrilled to have a couple of kitties in my house, but we’re retired now and traveling more, so I wouldn’t want to leave them alone for an extended period of time. Enjoy them while you have them!!
Sherrill Pecere says
Maybe it was the sound the sheet made. Not only smells but sounds can let them know what something or someone is. That first pic of Speck is so funny..looks like he’s thinking ‘what is she up to now?’. HA My Fang’s (cat) a biter, too, so I feel your pain.
Pat says
Speck is a cute old man and does not look his age. He does look with an attitude.
Jackie says
“If looks could kill” as my Mother would say. Speck looks like he isn’t going to forget what you did and where you brought him.
Rosalie says
Amazing prices….I took my kitten to vet last month as he wasn’t eating…between exam fee of about $75 and xray (just to make sure he didn’t eat a pin or a needle) it was $200! I even took my dogs to the local rabies shot day in the community as the vets charge so much for even just a rabies shot! To get spay or neuter it is over $100 now at the vet…so we drive an hour to a low cost clinic and get it done for $25 for the feral cats with rabies shot included.