[Liz K]

This is why I love the Midwest. Except for today when it’s going to be like a million degrees. But everything is fairly reasonable here. I just learned my lesson that Izzie is comfortable at her normal vets office, even if her normal vet isn’t there. It’s so worth taking the entire day off work to keep her healthy. She had only ever seen Dr. A when she was still a puppy and got off her leash and ran around the office like a fool. She was so nice and understanding and Izzie gave her two high fives.

[Liz K]

It wasn’t even about the money for me, so much as being recommended by a friend because our normal vet was out. I have just heard over and over again that my vet is soooo expensive, and I have learned that I simply don’t care. I am always happy when I go to pay because it never seems like a lot of money. I am just irritated that a friend would even recommend this vet in the first place. I don’t think that 43.00 is much at all and seeing what others spend, it’s very reasonable. Last week I spent 149.00 on shots, motion sickness meds, micro-chip and nail trim and I thought I’d made out like a bandit. We celebrated by going and buying Izzie all new toys for vacation, lol.

[Liz K]

Thank you all for your kind responses! It really helped me last night. I still didn’t get much sleep and woke up at 6:45 this morning to get her ready to take her to the vet, which turned out to be quite the ordeal, which I feel compelled to detail here as I learned a very valuable lesson today.

I usually take Izzie to a place called Three Trails where she has seen by the same doctor since she was a baby (she’ll always be MY baby). I called one of my good friends crying hysterically and she told me Izzie’s normal doctor wouldn’t be in as he is off on Thursdays (she takes her pups to the vet a LOT). She recommended that I take her to another place, we’ll just call it IAH for short, since they opened at 8 and I had to work today. We (my mom, Izzie, and I) ended up getting there shortly past 8 this morning and this place did not smell good. Not like dog, not like cat, just yuck. We sit in the waiting room and there is this beautiful, sweet, goofy big dog and she just feels compelled to talk…and talk…and talk. It wasn’t bothering us or anyone else. Dog’s bark. It’s what they do. A nurse came out and asked who was barking and said let’s just get this done and took her back immediately. I don’t know if she was annoyed or what, but that should have been my first clue. We get back into the room where the doctor doesn’t even pet her, doesn’t really ask questions or anything. I am in tears because I think that my baby has cancer. He then proceeds to tell me that all lumps have cancer in them. That doesn’t ring true, but it also scares me half to death. He sticks a huge needle in there twice (doesn’t look at anything under the microscope) and says it’s not bleeding and there is no hair in it, so it’s good. I mentioned the microchip and he said that wasn’t where they insert them. I asked what it could be and he gave a lot of random answers and recommended we cut it out. He said we could do it today or we could wait a bit, that it wasn’t urgent. My mom looked at me and said we’ll wait. I was a frazzled mess and so completely miffed that I left the vet with more questions that I had when I went in. We get to the car and my mom looks at me and says that there was no way in hell she was leaving our girl with him. We were so unbelievably upset that people actually send their kids to this guy, not to mention that our friend had recommended him. I decided to try to go to Three Trails and see if they had a walk in appointment available.

We get there and they didn’t have a walk in appointment available but after explaining to them what we had just gone through, they agreed to squeeze us in. We only waited about 45 minutes and then got back into the room. The nurse, whom Izzie generally loves, tried to stick the thermometer up her butt and Iz was none too pleased because she had just been poked on. The nurse was super understanding and tabled that for a bit. Dr. A comes in and we start explaining and she seemed a bit perplexed at the idea that I had just come from a vet and was now coming to see her. She seems to start to understand the issue after we explain more about what happened. The first thing she did was get to know Iz and then scan her microchip. Guess where the microchip was? In the middle of that lump. It had moved from the initial injection. She scanned it twice, which is two more times than the previous vet did. She starts to explain what she thinks it is and also adds that she had a lot of injections at her last appointment and it looked like an injection sight reaction. She said reactions to microchips are rare, but they do happen. She eased my fears as I was crying asking about cancer (google is a dangerous beast when you’re afraid). She explained every thing in detail, told us what we were going to do to get her better and laid out the next steps should it not work. We left with Benadryl, Prednisone, Pill Pockets and most importantly, peace of mind. I only spent 40.00 which I thought was a bargain considering I had just went to a “vet” who charged me 20.00 for nothing.

I keep getting told that Three Trails is more expensive. And you know what? Maybe they are. But isn’t it worth it to know that my baby is okay and have her be comfortable? And I don’t find them to be that much more expensive than any other place. She’s happier there, they re friendlier and they know her. I didn’t even have to tell Dr. A about the microchip. She just looked at her records and knew. The biggest lesson I learned today is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. She’s been going to Three Trails for all of her life, and as long as I can help it, will go there for many years to come.

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