Kaiah At The Vet

 A visit to the vet for Kaiah this morning. Nothing serious, I had just noticed she had a sore bottom. Steve was convinced she was hot and sweaty under the heat lamp and not getting the fresh air she needed, but as she was spending less time in with them it didn't make sense to me. I was convinced she had an infected anal gland. Sammi had had exactly the same whilst nursing the "J" litter. Coincidence? Maybe. Anyway I rang the vet last week and had a telephone consultation with Beth. I described the symptoms and she agreed it was likely to be an anal gland infection, I was allowed to get Kaiah some antibiotics. I really did not want to take her to the vets with 3 - 4 week-old pups at home, but obviously would if I had to. Anyway Beth agreed. Kaiah's problem seemed to be improving, but yesterday it was really sore again and I made an appointment to take her this morning. 

On arrival I had my consultation on a freezing cold car park with Malan.  I went through the whole story with her and I described what we had seen. She asked if she was excessively licking it, No! She asked if she was dragging her bottom or showing signs of discomfort, No! As she went to take Kaiah away I said, honestly she'll be better if I hold her, can we do it out here? I know it's a painful procedure and I felt Kaiah would be calmer with me. She considered it and then said, well we could go to the garage at the back. I jumped at the chance to stay with my dog. One of the anal glands was normal the other was indeed infected, she managed to get everything out of it and said another 5 days of antibiotics should clear it. Did Kaiah flinch, jump or winge?  ... No! She's a right little hard knock!

Malan asked how old the puppies were now and that gave me the opportunity to tell her what had gone on the night of the birth. I told her that I had never been let down by the practice before but I really felt that this time I had been badly let down. I said I'm not naming names but you'll know who was on call that night. I told her how rude he was and that I was treated badly. I also said that if money was the priority in life then they could have lost me £2,500, but in my case that was of little importance, I had lost 2 lives. At this point of course I cried! Damn it! Anyway I told her that when I was less emotional that I would talk to Ken. I've known Ken the senior partner since I was 16 and he was the junior vet ... she agreed that I should tell him. I composed myself and said that of course had I had the call-out I needed the outcome could still have been the same. Maybe the puppies were already dead, but maybe they weren't, and I'll never be able to forgive him for not letting me do everything I could for my bitch and her litter. 

I've only been treated badly by one vet before, that was by that pratt at Cibyn. I was told he was leaving but I gather he's still there, good enough reason to never go back, well not whilst he's there anyway. God I miss Jill Hubbard!