Airing Grievances

I'm very sorry that you cannot afford minimal care for your ancient, flea-ridden, filthy dog. But let's first be honest about "cannot afford" and "will not" afford.

When you say you "cannot afford" radiographs, then whip your iPhone out of your Marc Jacobs bag to text your friend with your recently manicured nails about what I can only presume is something about how unreasonable I'm being, and then go out to your brand new car, that is "will not" afford.

I am completely amazed by how many people complain about money almost constantly and then get a new car. Or a new phone. Or discuss what TV show they watched on one of their premium channels last night. Newsflash.. you can't get those things without money.

Now, if you are using credit to get those things.. and you don't actually have the cash.. that's called stupidity. And poor money management. And one day, when your credit is shot, and your nails are broken, and your cable gets cancelled, then you can tell me that you have no money. And I might - just might - believe you.

If you come in here and tell me you only have $300 to spend because you just dropped $900 on a spa day, I'm very sorry, but I do not feel bad for you. You have an animal, which is a living, breathing, feeling being, and you have a responsibility to provide for its needs, medical and otherwise. Not me.


When I was working at the ER, an intact (not spayed) female Maltese was presented to emergency for vomiting and diarrhea. She was carried in on a pink fluffy dog bed by her owners, who were in total distress that their beloved Muppet was sick.

The owners happily signed an estimate for some bloodwork and radiographs, a typical starting plan for the problem at hand.

Meanwhile, they went outside to wait in their .. wait for it.... brand new BMW SUV.

Initial diagnostics revealed that Muppet most likely had a pyometra, a condition resulting in unspayed females where the uterus becomes infected and filled with a purulent material. This condition can be life threatening, and requires emergency surgery (Spay your pets!!).

When informed that their precious Muppet needed surgery, suddenly the tune changed, and the owners became quite belligerent and claimed that they had no money for such a surgery, and couldn't we just give her a magic injection that would fix everything so they could take her home?

No, sorry, I left my wand at home.

Can we just do the surgery and not charge them for it? Why, in fact, no, no we cannot do that.

Can we take an international credit card (without a valid US license?) No, no sorry we can't do that either.

Can we take traveler's checks? Nope.

Finally the owners decided they were going to try to get something for nothing at another hospital. They didn't even want to pay for the diagnostics that had already been performed. There was a tense moment when we thought they were going to barge into the treatment room to get their dog. Then, the woman pulled out A ROLL OF $100 BILLS from her purse. There must have been $2000 in there.

So, excuse me if I don't quite seem sympathetic when you say you "cannot afford" treatment.


If you have pets, have a plan for how you are going to pay for their [inevitable] medical bills.

Sorry for the rant!

*All names and identifying details have been changed. Any resemblence to actual persons, animals or events is purely coincidental. 


Comments

  1. I could not do what you do.

    the end.

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  3. People look at pets as disposable things, much like everything else is these days. It sickens and saddens me when these "humans" are eager to buy a pet but are not willing to take care of it when things get rough. I was a vet tech for a while and too often I wanted to scream "how about we kill you because you insist on doing some habit we find annoying or you need surgery?" These pets are loyal and depend on us to love them, take care of them and advocate for them. They have feelings and personalities and intelligence.

    But I know I'm preaching to the choir.

    ReplyDelete

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