Yesterday Chris called to me upstairs to get some gauze or something, that he had hurt the dog. Apparently on their bike ride Jackson was distracted by a fenced in dog and his whole foot drooped into a slotted stormdrain while running. This resulted in a serious skin peel-back on his leg, clearly showing muscle and bone. Upon closer inspection, I knew this was a stitches situation. We abandoned plans for the evening and loaded up our clearly oblivious yet bleeding dog for the drive to the emergency vet. We opted for The Utah Pet Center, formerly in the Fun Dome, as I figured with such a big facility we would be seen quickly. And that we were. We were lucky to only need a few stitches, a pain pill, a local anesthetic...nothing big, you'd think. And then they brought out the estimate. $489. For 12 stitches. The bulk of the expense was in the actual stitching time, at a rate of $12 per minute. Per minute! The doc was expecting the job to take 20 minutes for a total of $240 just to move a needle. Hell, I'll break out the sewing kit and do it myself. Absolutely flabbergasted at the price, we called my usual vet, Cottonwood Animal Clinic to see what their emergency stitches rate was $8/minute. Outrageous, but still reasonable. After some quick math and having to pay their exam rate before we could leave, we decided to just suck it up and have it done there. We did spend the next 20 minutes complaining about it though. I don't even know any attorneys that get that kind of rate. So, local pet owners, beware. Go to your local vet or Cottonwood Animal Hospital (24hr ER) first.
Jackson personally could have cared less. After about an hour he started to want to lick it, but only because it looked tasty. But after his stitches were in, he was a sad dog. He had to wear a satellite dish, causing him to get stuck in doorways and not be able to reach his toys. We stopped at Petco on the way home to buy him some new toys since he can't be active for a few weeks. Here, we're sorry we broke you. He spent the evening moping and sighing and half heartedly looking at his new treasures. It was a sad day for all.
But fear not, for this morning he bounded all over the room and was tossing his toys like a pro. His satellite dish made it all of 15 hours, 10 of which he was sleeping. We returned at lunch to find it in pieces and him giving us a bemused look that said, like Stewart from MadTV, "Look what I can do!"
But fear not, for this morning he bounded all over the room and was tossing his toys like a pro. His satellite dish made it all of 15 hours, 10 of which he was sleeping. We returned at lunch to find it in pieces and him giving us a bemused look that said, like Stewart from MadTV, "Look what I can do!"
1 comment:
Oh, poor Jackson. He looks so miserable. That must have been a frightening experience for all three of you.
I love Cottonwood. They've been the emergency ER of the family since we moved here. It's also important to know that they are the only vet in the state with antivenom. Snakes have bit dogs up on the UOU side.
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