John & Anne Seibert
ti...@communique.net
Slidell, Louisiana
Quote for July 96'-"Your mind is on Vacation and your Mouth is working Overtime"
-Van "TheMan" Morrison
P.S.- Want to know more about us? Visit our homepage at:
http://pages.prodigy.com/Seibert
Please, have a good relationship with more than just one vet in
your area, or at least keep track of another one that your friends,
relatives, shelter and training contacts, etc. have used with good
success.
If you have an animal with a problem, and the treatments assigned
by your vet just don't seem right to you, and you can't get
answers from your vet that make you feel comfortable, by all
means, seek a second opinion. Vets are humans and make mistakes,
and sometimes a second opinion is in order. Your instincts will
guide you in this matter.
This is not to say that you should keep seeking opinions until
you get one that makes you happy, but if my dog was very ill and my vet
was not showing concern, I might take my dog straight on to a second vet
that I use as well. Go with the insticts you have - that this vet may be
wrong - he just might be.
My very old (28) mare developed an abscess in her hoof a few months ago,
which is rare for her. The regular vet prescribed some normal things, and all
was OK except she was getting worse. Even after a second visit, he had
little else to offer, and his treatments were making her otherwise sick.
Within two weeks, she was unable to stand at all. I called in another vet
I had used that, I felt, had more experience in this area. Turns out my
mare had a broken coffin bone (small bone in the hoof) and an out-of-control
abscess. Nearly required surgery, and we are very lucky we were able to
correct it with a heavy bombardment of drugs, as the surgery would have
likely done her in.
In my opinion, I waited too long to call in the second opinion, and
if the broken bone had gone undetected by the first vet for just a little
longer, I would have had to put her down. I could just *tell* that the
first vet was clueless, and you;d think he would admit it and call in
his senior partner, but I was the one who had to step in and say
ENOUGH! Now I pay a little more attention.
If it doesn't feel right to you, seek another opinion. Forget all that
loyalty and trust - you're not being disloyal by seeking another opinion,
and it's your pet's LIFE after all.
And, by the way, if you must visit an emergency clinic with your dog,
get an appointment with your own vet the very next day as a follow up.
They should tell you this, but do it anyway if they don't!
-Lisa
Have to admit there can be an advantage to going to a vet who has more than 1
partner, especially if they seem to work well together. My sister and I go to
a vet who knows what he is doing usually. He also usually has a new vet in
his practice who is really a new vet. He also has a 3rd vet who has been
there a while. Admittedly he will not handle certain things, but will refer
to specialists if needed. My sisters very old doxie had cancer and he did not
feel up to operating due to the age of dog, and also fact that dog had had
problems with anesthesia in the past. He referred her to the state's vet
school, and they did surgery, and he did live until a little over 18 years of
age,when arthritis was causing a lot of pain,and with the cancer coming back,
it was just too hard on the dog.
The vet also referred me when my dog was quite young for some advanced dental
work.....bottom line is he seems to have a good pipeline into the vet school,
gets the latest in technology info, and will even ask his associates in to
double check his diagnosis on occassion. Basically I have a dog who does not
like kennels and although she does not normally chew on toys, gummy bones,
etc.....she will very energetically try to chew out of plastic kennels or
wire crates. Her first damage to a tooth was when she got fixed and tried to
chew on the metal kennel bars. Have to admit it is hard to believe a doxie
can actually manage to get enough of her jaw between bars, to chew with her
back teeth. She does not know it yet, but a new kennel will be in her future,
a kennelaire or something which has very little spaces between bars so she
cannot get her jaw in there. She does seem to be doing a little better but I
dont want to risk further injury do to her not liking crate.
LeeK9