Dehydration

This week’s big D is dehydration. My sweet dog was out for a run with me and had what we think now was a heat stroke. Yes, I know that is not synonomous with dehydration, but heat stroke doesn’t start with D, and neither does emergency veterinary services.

Damn, those ER vet clinics are fucking expensive! I know they are working in the middle of the night, but some doctors work in the middle of the night, too. I mean, ok, if you go to the ER as a human, yes, the initial visit might cost you more, like your co-pay might be higher and if you have to go in an ambulance, yes, that cost is ridiculous. But if the ER runs a blood test on you, does it cost twice what it would cost had they done it in the day time? I totally believe that they charge more at the ER vet clinics for even the routine stuff.

After they whisked him away on the gurney the desk clerk came out and asked me to put a deposit down on his care, $1200. I told him I would be happy to write a check…but that it would bounce if they tried to cash it. He said, “Let me see if we can do something about that.” He came back 5 minutes later saying, “Ok, we have eliminated all the non essential services and we are down to $670.”

Really? I mean, really? Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate them doing that for me. And I recognize that by electing to not have all the things on that first sheet done, I may have hurt my dog. And he is REALLY important to me. I take pretty good care of him and all of that. It’s just that I don’t have any credit right now (remember the NovaDebt thing) and really no cash available in the bank. So I have plenty of guilt already about this trip to the ER vet.

I do still have enough emotion left over, though, to be kind of pissy about the fact that here I was, distraught over my dogs health and they present me with an estimate – nearly half of which they consider non essential? That bugs me, I ain’t even gonna lie about it.