Wow - Talk About a Dedicated Owner

[tHeGiNo]

Well, I am working at a vet clinic. A lady came in today, whom I had never seen before. I talked to her for a bit, and she informed me that her cat had just undergone surgery. The cat is diabetic, with MANY other problems she listed which I cannot remember, however it included kidney and liver problems. She spent $5000.00 on her surgery, and pays $200.00 a month in medication. The cat is fifteen years of age. When she told me this, all I could say was nothing! I asked her how in the heck she could afford that. She got an EXTRA JOB, just to pay her vet bills. She took out a loan as well. To me, this is someone who REALLY loves there pet.

A few days ago, some arrogant prick called the clinic and informed me that his husky had had babies the night prior, and two of the babies are having 'problems.' So I requested some more information on the pregnancy, and what the problems were, and he informed me that the dog was giving birth for 26 hours straight. Not good. So I told him to bring in the two sick puppies, the mother, and all the other puppies to ensure they are ok. When I suggested this, wow did he ever flip out on me. He became totally irate, began swearing then told me he is ONLY going to bring the two puppies in. At this point, there is really nothing I can do. I said ok, and told him to bring them in right away. He told me at 11:00 PM or so the night prior, the mother was still giving birth, so he went to bed. He also said there was one baby who was not suckling on the mother. He woke up the next morning to see another baby, green, freezing cold and feet away from the mother. The green was from defecating in its sac before the female gave birth to him.

So anyhow, he brought the puppies in and waited in the waiting room for results. Both babies came in freezing cold, so we first warmed them up. Neither baby was suckling on the mother, so they were given straight glucose to try and bring them to life. With time, both puppies looked promising. However, without the mothers milk, the puppies are unable to fight bacteria, and we new its chances were not good. Once they began readily suckling on the glucose syringe, we put them in a warming cage and began feeding them milk. Both readily took them, however one of the babies shortly made a turn for the worse. He began excreting blood from both his genitals and his rectum. He was gasping for air, and was asperating. We called the owners, and told them it was in the puppies best bet to put him down. We told him the cost of euthanasia would be $5.00. At this point, he replied 'well if it going to cost me more money, just let it die.'

Anyhow, the point of all that was to show the extent people will or will not go for their animals. And it is unfortunate how many times I see cases like the guy with the puppies. For example, another thing that really bugs me, is when people are too cheap to choose laser surgery over scalpal. The difference in bleeding is incredible, as is the lack of pain caused with laser surgery. And the difference in cost is like a mere $50.00. Yet people still choose the scalpal. Beats me why.

In the cats case, I couldn't decide whether the lady was being greedy or not. And maybe this is just my opinion, but at fifteen years of age, being diabetic and having severe kidney and liver problems, 'forcing the cat to live' like that, in my opinion, is being greedy. What do you all think?