My Grand-doggie Deoji
Well, it’s 9:30 pm and we just got home from taking our grand-doggie to the emergency room. Normally, when our beloved Deoji visits us for the day we play Frisbee or with a tennis ball. We played Frisbee for about 20 minutes but stopped after he seemed to be panting too hard. It was a hot and humid day today and if it were up to him, he would never stop chasing the Frisbee and just keep going until his legs give out. So I make the decision when I think he’s had enough, even though I know he’s thinking “thanks a lot Gram-mom- you have to spoil everything”.
Also, his normally long, lean body has gained some weight of late, being that his doggie-day care place closed down for the last two weeks due to an outbreak of kennel cough. Fortunately, Deoji didn’t get it, but two of his girlfriends did- really bad even though they were inoculated against it.
Anyway, later in the day, I decided it was time to go out and get some more exercise (good for me too!!). I don’t normally like playing with sticks with Deoji, but he kept bringing them to me and dropping them in front of me and looking at me with those huge dilated eyes saying “throw the stick, throw the stick – come on Gram-mommy, throw the stick!” So of course I did. He’d fetch and bring them back (making sure to break them in half each time) and I’d throw the smaller stick and watch him run absolutely FLAT OUT to catch the darn thing. I kept thinking the whole time, “I don’t really want to play with these stupid sticks, he’s going to get hurt one of these days”. Well, he broke all of the big sticks but found a skinny one and brought that one over for me to throw. Darn dog anyway. I KNEW I DID NOT want to throw this stick but flung it anyway. I watch in slow motion as the stick twirled end over end in the air with Deoji looking up to see where he should run to catch it. The stick came down in front of him and he grabbed it – my heart went up in my throat. He just stood there – not moving a muscle – I wanted to throw up- I knew it was bad. He started gagging with this stick just protruding from his mouth and couldn’t get it out. It seemed like it took me minutes to run the twenty feet to get to him. The stick seemed to have virtually impaled his throat. I pulled it out and it was covered in blood. Deoji was gagging and try to throw up- I was SURE there was a piece of stick stuck in his throat. Oh God – my daughter’s vet is closed and the nearest emergency vet is over 40 minutes away. I had a million things going through my mind at once.
I called the emergency vet across the County and tell them we were coming in. I was thanking God Deoji could breathe okay because I knew it was going to take FOREVER to get there! I got behind every single slow jerk that was out on the road and it wasn’t even Sunday!. It was agony and I must have hissed and cursed under my breath more than 100 times on the way there. I kept wishing I had the money to open an emergency vet office in my area. This long of a drive when you NEED to get somewhere is just unacceptable. And I know there are MANY people in my area that must have gone through the same thing I was at that very moment. I had that stomach in my throat fear that something so bad has happened and you can’t get to the doctor’s fast enough! After an hour and a half hour wait (yes that’s 1 1/2 hours), it was finally Deoji’s turn. They took him for an x-ray and thank you God, there were no pieces of stick in his throat.
They DID find that he seemed to have a small esophageal tear though, but said he should be okay and it would heal itself with some medication. I walked out of there with two medications that I now had to explain to my daughter how to give him. One was to help repair the tear, the other was for pain.
Did you ever notice what nice people you meet in the same situation you are?? There were several people in the waiting room that I felt like they had been my friends for way longer than 5 minutes. My gripe for this whole ordeal, is that the hospital charged outrageous fees for their care. Yes, I know it was an emergency and believe me, I would have paid anything to make sure that he was okay, but this is just outright taking advantage of people in need. Just one of the fees was $104 for ONE x-ray. Not a CAT scan or ultrasound or anything like that- JUST an x-ray. The fee for the “visit” was acceptable because it WAS an emergency, however they charged almost the same amount for the “exam” and then the medications on top of that.
Deoji’s life is more important to me than money but I do think it’s disgraceful how these emergency centers start rubbing their hands together the second you walk in the door. Deoji will be okay, (I am SO relieved) and my pocketbook will recover but he will NEVER play with another stick in his life. I am going to make sure he only plays with Frisbees from now on. Darn animals anyway. Gram-mommy loves you honey. I’m sorry I let you get hurt today. I’ve got lots of hug and kisses for you when you feel better.
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It is SAD how the e-vets take advantage of distraught/devoted pet lovers. Like you said-we would do it over again if we had to!! Because there is little more precious than the life and safety of a beloved pet.
Silly Deoji causing Gram-Mom so much grief!
Love,
Aunt Michele
Thanks for the comment, honey! It is said isn’t it how the emergency vets take advantage? You and Shane know all too well about that but like you say, we would do it all over again without a second thought. I love my Grand-doggies so much and worry about them as much as I do my Grand-Kids!!! Darn animals anyway!! hehehe