New / Old Vets

Well, it looks like I'm going back to my old vet with my dogs. I think I may have mentioned that my changing vets had nothing to do with being disappointed in my vet, but rather how far my vet was.

Anyway, I was a bit bothered by the fact that when I took Brewsky in, the new vet (and her staff) couldn't keep his name straight. Plus, when I scheduled Harley for his neutering surgery, they scheduled it a month out.

Okay fine. Then there was the dog food scare. Initially it wasn't clear to me exactly what was being recalled. I knew IAMS food was (which is what I feed my dogs) but was it wet food or dry food or both? All the news reports, and even the distributor's webpage, showed dog food bowls with DRY dog food. So, what was the deal?

An online article said there were 23 (I think) states the tainted food was delivered to. Texas was not among them, although Walmart, Kroger and some other food store all were on the list. Did I need to be worried? Didn't know. I called my local Walmart (where I buy their food) and they are buying back the recalled food. Not a good sign.

I finally called my vet - the new one - and asked them what they know. The conversation went like this.

Me: Yes, I'm calling about the dog food recall.
Them: No, no. It's cat food that's being recalled.
Me: Uh, the news reports are saying dog food is being recalled too.
Them: We don't sell the dog food that's being recalled.
Me: Ooooookay. I didn't buy my dog food from you. I'm trying to find out what dog foods are affected by the recall.
Them: We don't sell the dog food that's being recalled.
Me: Yes, I understand that. But can you tell me about the dog foods that are being recalled?
Them: We only know about the foods we sell that are being recalled. And we don't sell any dog food that's being recalled.
Me: So you can't answer any questions about the dog food being recalled?
Them: No.

I don't know about you but that left me with a bad feeling. It came across like their only concern was their liability in the matter - not the well-being of other animals that might be affected.

Then comes today. I'm still wanting to give them the benefit of the doubt, right? Tomorrow is supposed to be when Harley gets his "no bitch can blame me if she gets knocked up" surgery. Well, I've been sick and I wanted to be sure that it wouldn't impact Harley adversely. Would he be more susceptible to illness immediately following surgery? I called my new vet to ask, you know, since they hadn't called me to remind me of the surgery.

They didn't know. They didn't know! But they want me to go ahead and bring him in for the surgery anyway. I cancelled and asked for their next appointment. She says, "We schedule these things a month out. The next available time I can fit him in is (I hear her flipping pages) May 1."

I said, "You can't see him before then? That's your first appointment."

"No. Well, there's an opening tomorrow. (the one I just cancelled, in case you didn't catch that) Or May 1. What do you want to do?"

"I think I want to go back to my old vet." (Yes, I actually said that.)

"Oh, okay. So you're cancelling tomorrow then?"

"Yes."

"Okay, bye!"

So I called my old vet and said I wanted to bring Harley in to be neutered. They could fit him in tomorrow. Tomorrow! Not next month, not in May - TOMORROW! Which, okay, wasn't going to work for the same reason I wanted to cancel the appointment with the vet closer to home but I wasn't being put off and I know he's a busy vet (although he seems to be having a lot of turnover with his staff and I had to give my name no less than three times! when I called).

Anyway, I explained that I'd been sick and asked if he had anything available for next week. And he does. Harley's getting his sexual reassignment surgery next Tuesday, with my new, used to be old, vet.

Yes I'll be driving a lot further to get this done but you know, it's worth the drive to have the confidence in the person caring for your babies. That's all I'm going to say.