Saturday, October 10, 2009

Why my Vet rocks....

I rushed home from work to meet Andrew at the Vet's (Animal Hospital of Towne Lake) for Grimm's appointment.

Ever since Monday, he's been itchy so we gave him a dose of flea preventative, waited 48 hours, and bathed him in oatmeal flea shampoo. It didn't help, and we noticed his skin getting red on Wednesday night. By Thursday afternoon, he had developed a hot spot on his chest where he licked himself raw and under his "arms" were red and swollen.

We bathed his wet spot (which was only slightly damp) and under his arms and then applied Betadine on them.

I made an appointment Friday morning for Friday afternoon.

We get into the Vet, and the Vet Tech (Andrea King) starts getting information from us. I told her he had dermatitis which looked like the cause was an allergic reaction to something or another. This time when we flipped Grimm over on his back, we noticed the hot spot was weeping (ew!). She went and got some some clippers and surgical scrub: shaving the hair on his chest around the hot spot and then gently wiping down the hot spot and under his arms with the surgical scrub.

Grimm did NOT like that. She took his temp: slightly high, but he was stressed out so she said that was pretty normal.

The Vet came in a few minutes later and assessed Grimm. She said it was definitely dermatitis caused by an allergic reaction, but she didn't think it was a flea bite allergy, and that it may have been a bug or something at Andrew's parents' house that set him off.

She gave him a shot of Prednisone, and wrote up a treatment plan including Keflex (antibiotic) for two weeks, Genesis (a topical spray with antibiotics in it) for two weeks, Tramadol (so he could sleep at night), and an Elizabethan Collar (think "conehead.") At first, all I saw were dollar signs adding up, but the Vet (Dr. Rittle) assured me everything was going to be okay, and it wasn't as expensive as it sounded. She was very polite, and Grimm loved her.

The Vet Tech asked if we wanted to buy an E-collar there or at Petsmart. Andrew asked how much it was, and she said, "let me go run your quote, and I'll be back."

Now at my prior Vet, it cost Grimm $180 for a Rabies vaccination (NOT Distemper), Strongid dewormer, and a puppy shot. (If I had known it would be that much, we would have gone to the low cost clinic and paid $50! Not to mention the Vet and staff were rude.)

Vet Tech came back in, ran through the list of charges:

Office Visit
Prednisone injection
Tramadol
Antibiotics
Topical Spray
Wound cleaning
E-Collar

Total cost (with tax): $155.00

She fitted Grimm with his satellite dish, and home we went. We gave Grimm two Tramadol, fed him, watered him, gave him his antibiotics, sprayed his hot spot and "armpits," and put him to bed. He slept the WHOLE night through (well prior to Andrew stepping on his "arm" by accident in the middle of the night).

Today he's just moping around the house - laying down wherever I am. I had to coax him outside to potty, and he hasn't grasped the concept that he has a satellite dish on his head so he keeps running into things, but he's doing better.

1 comment:

A. Hab. said...

Is Genesis a sulfate? Milt's on GentaSpray, and I can't give it to him because it's a sulfate, and I'm allergic.