Pet Care in Vancouver

So anyone who has read Crunchy Carpets will have seen mention of? the major surgery our cat Aurora just underwent.

This was in interesting experience and we have learned a fair bit from it.? My husband and I both agreed that we HAD to experience it to learn the process and what to avoid, what to ask, what to push, etc.? We saw how the different clinics work.? Their priorities, their function……I figure you have to decide what works best for you.
We quite like our regular vet.? They seem to care and be quite efficient, apart from not reading charts and or communicating with the various staff there.? You never know WHO is going to see your pet.

We had been watching Aurora get worse and so we tried to get an appointment with the vet on a Saturday morning.? Despite stating the urgency of this and how uncomfortable the cat was, they would not squeeze us in and instead we were booked for late Monday afternoon.

My husband was very worried about this and started checking out all the other 24 hour places.? I also called the SPCA, but while they are open on a Saturday, they appear to not actually take appointments.? My husband decided to take Aurora down to the Animal Emergency Clinic down on West 4th Avenue.? We had (sadly) used this place before when we rushed a local stray that we had been looking after down there. ? He was too sick to save, but they were very kind and didn’t charge us for the treatment.

It was fairly quiet when we arrived and they assessed Aurora right away. ? Or so we thought.? The FIRST vet assessed him.? Then we waited an hour for ANOTHER vet to show up and ask all the same questions, draw the same conclusions and then vanish to right up a massive estimate.

We just wanted him to be more comfortable right away and then deal with whatever.? He was dehydrated and miserable.? But we had to put down a deposit for half of the estimate before anything was done.

The estimate broke everything down to the nitty gritty details.? From? 90 cents for a pill, $8 for an IV extension set, to? $145 for a Radiograph, and on, including how much they would charge for us talking to them on the phone and that we get THREE FREE calls.? They asked if any extensive blood work had ever been done, and we said no..please do.? They decided to do a complete work up and try to clean out his bowels.

We went home feeling that at least someone was working on him.? We got a call at 10 pm that night saying that the enema’s had not worked and that she was? going to try to ‘extract’ the stool (Yuck) that night. ? Again, we were relieved that someone was working on him.

We hear nothing the next morning and call.? Nope, nobody had done anything to him and they were going to ‘try’ to fit it in later.

We then get another call.? They had tried and had stopped half way through the procedure as they thought Aurora was not doing well under the anesthetic. ? They tell us that they want to send him to another place and that SURGERY was the next option and that THOSE doctors would talk to us about this.? Please come and pick up you cat and take him there.

Hmm, we both say.? I think we are being gotten rid off. ? Fine.? We understand that they have far more urgent cases than our cat dying from constipation (he could have died.) , but why did you just not say so.

We get down there, after dropping the kids off with Nana and almost killing some snot nosed D.I.N.K.S’s in a Volkswagen? who tried to cut us off and then give US the finger…..we are faced with this HORRIBLY chirpy lady who rushes around getting us the right documents and then cheerily telling this poor couple to ‘please come in we are giving your dog CPR!’? She was a total loony toon.

We are given directions to a place we had never heard off and a raft of paper work AND a bill for $1200 for basically an overnight stay and nothing else, except for this ‘transfer.’

Away we go back across town to the Canada West Veterinary Specialists.

Upon arrival, Aurora is rushed away for yet another ‘assessment.’ ? We are told to sign this HUGE release form, signing off on a wack of stuff that a VET has supposed to have told us about…nobody has….the biggie being the in’s and out’s of this potential surgery AND the potential estimate of $6500!!!!

We point out that we have seen NOTHING about this place.? No costs, no information and that no Vet has spoken to us. ? We are told that a vet WILL be in touch with us by tomorrow maybe and that they would do what they could.

At this point we were feeling very helpless.? We had no clue about this clinic and what really was going on (it was 6pm by this time on a Sunday).? We lay down a deposit for HALF of the HIGH estimate (credit cards groaning by this time), and walk away….being told that surgery may NOT happen till Tuesday.

We felt very worried saying good bye to Aurora for a second time.

However, the next day and the day after, we received many calls about Aurora and the vet talked to us in detail about the surgery and how good the outcome would be.? We decided that it was worth it and to go for it…despite having NO real clue how much this was going to cost us.

Aurora finally had his surgery late Tuesday evening.? We received a call right away detailing the surgery and how well he was doing. ? We were told that Thursday was probably the day to pick him up.

We were very happy.

Then it got weird again.? We were told to call to arrange a pick up time.? We did.? We said that 2 pm would work for us.? There was a pause….THEY actually wanted to tell US when to get him.? And it wouldn’t be until 7 pm.

We arrive with the kids in tow (no more babysitters) and wait. ? AND wait.? AND wait.? 8pm rolls around we are are told that THE technician is running late.? One technician.? We decide that we HAVE to get the kids home to bed and that my husband would come back and pick up Aurora.

Aurora FINALLY made it home at 10 pm that night!
I am still boggled by this.

Anyway, at least they gave us a huge list of instructions, medication, gauze, gloves, the works for his after care. ? He looked awful, but after we cleaned him up and he got used to being home again, he bounced back really quickly.? ? Really quickly for a cat that was in such rough shape according to the other crew.
We are really impressed with how quickly he has recovered.? They did a great job. ? And at least we feel that the WHOPPING bill there was well worth it.

In hindsight I have a feeling that the story about Aurora not doing well at the emergency clinic was maybe a bit of an exaggeration.? I think they had decided quickly that this was NOT an urgent situation for them and decided to hand us off to the next one……the vet who was looking after Aurora at the West 4th place happened to also work at the Canada West place.? Interesting.

They called the other day and told us that our kitty also has Irritable Bowel Disease and we now have to work on diet and meds to keep him healthy. ? We will cover that with our own vet when the stitches are due out.

So.? Lesson learned?

Have a list of ALL the private clinics and specialists with you for weekend emergencies.? Research BEFORE anything bad happens.

Have Pet Insurance (though I don’t know how much of this would have been covered)

ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS - We should have just asked the West 4th people as soon as they mentioned surgery if we needed to take him to a new place right away…would have saved us money and a rough time for Aurora.

ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS - don’t feel bad about asking about costs.? You have to.? For most of us cost IS a huge issue when it comes to our pet care. Find out about payment plans and so on. ? I can’t imagine what we would have done if we could NOT have stretched for this.

ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS - shop around for the right vet for you.? Don’t just do the closest one if you don’t have to.? Finding a good vet is as important as finding a good family doctor.? You have to feel comfortable and trust them.? Ask friends and family about their vets.? Ask people at the dog park and so on.

ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS - compare prices of the vets.? When we were going to get Callie spayed, our vet quoted a really high price.? We called the SPCA and it was much more affordable and I was really happy with the care they gave her.? They have a great team there.? I highly recommend the staff at the SPCA, if you don’t mind how busy they are.

I would love to hear about any other pet owners experiences about vets and care.? A good list of people would be? a great resource.

The vet we use for all our animals at the moment is Vancouver Veterinary Hospital at Kingsway and Knight. ? A bit of a drive for us, but they have a really nice staff, and I really like their paper work..very clear records.? They do follow up calls too, which is nice.? My biggest concern is that they don’t seem to communicate that well with each other about what has been done or said to the clients..but it wasn’t anything major.