Looks like we are going to the Vets tomorrow General Chat

I opened the door to bring Bandit in for dinner and he was licking this. I found an old cone but it was too small. I will try putting a tshirt on him before I go to bed so he doesn’t make it worse. No idea what it is but I think he should be seen. I guess I’ll try and make an appointment at the office he’s used to going to since I haven’t found a new vet yet, since my old guy sold his practice. I did get a recommendation from someone who has an Akita and I suppose I could try them but since they will potentially be poking around in a wound, if I can’t be with him it’s probably best he goes somewhere he’s familiar with. I will call the other place first and see if I can go in with him. The only other time he’s had something like this it turned out to be a long, thin, sharp, black seed. When they poked around in him to find it I held his head and two techs held the rest of him. Looks like $100-200 dollar visit to me...

Poor Bandit - I hope it will turn out to be just a minor problem, and also that you will be able to go in with him, Marc, if you take him to the new place. I cannot begin to imagine how distressing it must be for a dog to have to be poked and prodded around without a familiar face to reassure him, even if he is in familiar surroundings, especially if he has to be held still in the process.

Cyber hugs for both Bandit and Katie Mae - and you.

Best wishes for Bandit's vet visit. I hope it is nothing serious. It is a nuisance when you need to go to work and can not be there to stop them from making things worse.

We have an appointment at his old vets office at 11:40. It’s 7:15 now. Receptionist said they’d bring him in and look at it and depending on what they need to do they might have me come inside. I think that’s the best I can hope for right now...

Waiting outside vets. They aren’t gong to let me inside, that’s just a line they told me this morning to make me feel better

They just brought out an estimate of $385. $69 for office visit, about the same again to shave it and look at it. Almost $100 for antibiotic injection and about the same for a steroid injection and $15 for antibiotic pills. This seems like robbery to me. I asked her to look at my records and find when he came in a few years ago for something similar and to see what they charged. I don’t like new owners and obviously should have gone somewhere else. Last time shaving and looking at it were included in the office visit and I don’t think the rest was nearly as expensive

That seems to be pure extortion to me. Maybe prices over there are more expensive than here but that is WOW.

Have they at least said what they think it is?

How on earth can they charge THAT much? I am totally lost for words Marc - or rather I am not but I would be banned forever if I said what I would like to say.

It sounds like your original vet has sold out to a multinational chain. This is happening over here too, and the appointment of practice managers means that every little thing is logged on the computer as an added charge. This means that (say) a £40 consult fee can be loaded to increase the overall price - eg. Eddie's routine blood test where drawing the blood is now a £20 additional charge. Having said that, your estimate sounds even more extortionate.

I agree that sure is daylight robbery... I'm sure if I took Tootsy into our local vet here in France she would have a good poke around for free to get to the bottom of the problem... you must try and find a better and cheaper surgery because that just sounds like extortion to me...

Sorry I’m just getting back to this thread, I’ve too much going on in my life.

So I told them I didn’t want either of antibiotic or steroid injections at about $100 each. I said go ahead and shave a little if you need to in order to have a better look and send us home with antibiotics.. Well he proceeds to tell me it could be from a flea bite or a insect sting but he can’t determine what it is. He also sends with my invoice that Bandit has stage 3 tooth issues... this isn’t why we went and I don’t really believe him, I think he’s just fishing for more money to help recover what was spent to buy the practice from my old vet, who I really miss. My dogs don’t have flees, they spend time on my bed every night, I think would be getting bitten if they had them. Thoroughly disappointing visit. I felt like it was all about the money and not the pet care. I’m definitely finding a new vet

edit. He didn’t even know or even guess at the cause.. My old vet would have shaved and checked and treated the wound as part of the office visit. Imo they didn’t even need to shave it. Oh well, lots of changes coming for my dogs and me in the future.

Bandit got on my bed this morning, which he usually only comes on it at night for belly and neck and head rubs, and as soon as I start to fall asleep and my hands stop moving he gets off. Well this morning he wasn’t feeling well, maybe just his feelings for having to wear the cone, and he got on my bed, leaned into me and proceeded to fall asleep, snoring. He slept with me for almost 2 hours, well he slept, he was too loud for me to go back to sleep. I listened to some relaxing music and then read. Tonight I took off the cone so he could eat and never put it back on because he wasn’t trying to lick it.

Also the vet didn’t have a cone his size so had to drive to town and buy one. They didn’t have a cheap plastic one so I had to spend almost $50 on a fancy soft one...

$385 and all they could come up with was "it could be from a flea bite or a insect sting" but could not determine what it is? What sort of vet gives an antibiotic and/or steroid injection when it is not known what the problem is? As for not having a correct size cone - what sort of veterinary college did they go do, or did they buy their "diplomas" from the internet. I hope you can find a different - decent - vet practice very soon. Also that you will not need it for the foreseeable future.

Poor Bandit [and your poor pocket, having to spend so much on a cone] - I do hope he quickly feels better and is back to his normal bouncy self.

I found the cone collars depressed my dogs as they were always bumping into things and could never get comfortable, luckily my vet had an inflatable collar that you could borrow, I found them much better and dogs were happier.
They are not that expensive to buy.

Emwel Pet Inflatable Collar for Large Dogs, Comfy Pet Collar Cone for Recovery, Inflatable Basic Dog Collars, L: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

What a disappointing result. It doesn't pay to fall out with your nearest vet in case of emergencies, but it might pay to shop around for non urgent treatment.

As a fellow American, I also concur that those prices are insane. Nigredo recently had to have a growth removed from his eyelid. He had to be put completely under for the removal. The sedative, an exam, some eye antibiotics, etc all came up to less than $300 so it makes no sense for a basic exam and no real results to come to $300.

So Bandit seems to be feeling better and definitely has his bounce back in his step!! I had left the cone off but he licked the scab off so I made him wear it for 4 days. After that it was well scabbed up and he didn’t mess with it. Tonight will be his last antibiotic pill (should be done but I forgot once...). I don’t even know if he needed antibiotics at all. I’m very glad I skipped the shots of antibiotics and steroids because if he healed with $15 of antibiotics he obviously didn’t need those expensive injections.

Now I need to find a new Vet to look at his teeth because I do think he has some pain in his mouth and I don’t want to keep supporting the practice we’ve been going to, even if new Vet costs just as much, it’s the principle. I hope he doesn’t need any teeth pulled, he’s very young for that, 4.25 years old. He gets a dental chew after each meal, but I don’t brush his teeth. I’m sure that after I spend many hundreds of dollars having his teeth cleaned, and even more so if he has some pulled, I will start to take better care of his teeth. These are my 4th and 5th dogs, and I’ve never had any problems like this before.

I had thought Bandit had become tired of his food, but now I think he wasn’t as interested in eating because his mouth hurt, poor guy. I changed foods and seemed like that helped, but it was short lived. Now he’s getting 1/2 kibble and 1/2 very high quality dehydrated food that I add warm water to. This seems to hurt him less as it’s softer. I will start soaking his kibble first too. I’ll call around and get an appointment for him

Some dogs just seem prone to having bad teeth no matter how well cared for. Same as people really.

Poor Bandit. Lexi was born with a predisposition to bad teeth, her dam having been fed on left-overs and scraps and the pups were weaned on stale bread soaked in watered down milk. She had to have her teeth cleaned under anasthaetic when she was fairly young and I brushed her teeth every other day after that.

Her teeth were still bad though and she lost the top four front ones - then had to have another ten removed under a GA. Still managed her kibble though. Pereg, of course, was changed from kibble to raw when she was about 2½ and her teeth were fine. I still brushed them regularly though.

As for Tikva - as she has been on raw since she was weaned off her bottle, has nice, clean, strong teeth, but there is no way she would let me brush them.

I hope Bandit will be OK and not have to have any teeth extracted - and al

Poor Bandit, and poor your pocket too!
I am fairly keen on tooth cleaning, so apart from the slab fractures when they tried to crack open weight bearing bones, my two do stay pretty clean. I may have trouble to come with Merry though as the lymphoma has made her gums sensitive. I don't like to brush them any more, so now rub them with a fine damp cloth and a canine enzymatic toothpaste.