When we adopted our beautiful Dobie-Rot Princess from a small farm in Florida, she had been abused and would lie down on her back and shake when approached. What an unhappy life she had as a young dog. When we took her to the vet, we found out she also had heartworm, which is very common in Florida. She couldn’t safely be spayed because of the risk involved in anesthesia with the heart-worm, and we weren’t financially able to foot the bill for the heart-worm treatment at the time, so both had to wait. In the meantime, we were advised to give her an aspirin and a garlic pill each day, which we did. The vet expressed concerns that Princess could become a “medical nightmare,” but we didn’t care; we just loved her.

Day-by-day, with lots of love, Princess grew into a trusting, fabulously patient and sweet dog. She felt so loved that nothing in the world could put Princess in a bad mood. She had a friend by her side, day and night, and his name was Sidekick. He was a Golden Retriever puppy, and we adopted him from the same farm the day we adopted Princess. His mother had abandoned her puppies, so Princess nursed all of them, since she had birthed a litter that was allegedly stillborn. Sidekick loved her, and she took good care of him.

A couple of years later, we moved to California, and both Princess and Sidekick thrived; however one day, Princess started bleeding and, when we took her to the Vet, she said that Princess had pyometra and would require immediate surgery. Because of the heartworm issue, she only had a 40% chance of surviving the surgery. On the other hand, without the surgery, she had no chance at all. Had she been spayed, this would not have happened, which is yet another seriously important reason to spay and neuter your pets. We opted for the $800.00 surgery and prayed that the sad look we saw on her face, when she was led away to the back of the animal hospital to prep for surgery, would not be the last one we saw.

Princess made it through the surgery with flying colors and was standing up and ready to go an hour afterward. She was so happy to go home, and Sidekick licked her face once he got over the fact that she had gone out and left him overnight. Once she recovered, she had the heartworm treatment, which was successful, and she lived for 5 more years before succumbing to kidney failure at the tender age of 15. Thanks to a wonderfully caring vet, Princess had many good years with us, as did Sidekick, who lived to be 17.

I am so thankful that I have known my veterinarian for years. It makes it so much easier when I land in the emergency room with my cat. I thought the worst when I got home from work and saw my cat had these bumps all over the place.

I saw bumps that were almost like welts on his legs, back, feet, head, body and neck. I was not sure what had happened but he wanted to scratch them and was clawing himself open. I phoned the emergency room right away and drove Fred into the animal hospital.

Because I knew the vet and she was told I had called, she took me and Fred in right away. I was happy that I called first. My friend the vet takes us into exam room number three and has a look at Fred. She tells me that she wants to run a few more tests and maybe draw some blood. I had no problems with this because I trust her. It is so important to trust your veterinarian in my opinion.

After a few minutes Fred starts to scratch again and im feeling very stressed because I do not know how to help my life long friend Fred. So, after a few more tests my friend the vet comes in with a needle and tells me that she is going to give Fred a shot that will make him feel better and stop him from itching.

As it turns out Fred had an allergic reaction to something. It could be anything including a new brand of pet food we just tried. Yes, Fred has hives and the doctor tells me that they should go away in a few days if I keep giving him the medicine. I have no problems doing this because I have found a veterinarian hat I trust. I have worked with this vet and known her for over ten years. I know she has Fred’s best interest in mind.

As of the time of this writing Fred is sitting here on his pillow on my desk and he is doing fine. However, if you have any pets it is my opinion that you will want to find a veterinarian you trust and stick with them. Doing this will save you time and money as well as unwanted stress. I am so happy for my emergency vet Chicago and my buddy Fred.

I am an avid animal lover, but cats are by far my favorite pet. I have gone thorough my entire life owning some type of cat, and during that time there have been many visits to the veterinarian. If you know anything about cats, you know they hate to go for car rides. They howl so loud, one would think they were being tortured. Most cats have to be transported to the veterinarians in some type of pet cage. These cages, often called pet taxies can be bought at almost any store; you do not need to buy one from a veterinarian.

On my cat’s last visit to the veterinarian, it was an emergency visit. She had got into some type of fight with another animal, we think another cat. Her eyes were all bloody and she was having a hard time seeing. She howled so loud people were looking at us like we were trying to hurt her. Just getting her into the pet taxi is a job in itself. Once she sees it she runs and hides and we usually cannot find her for hours. This time she actually got out of the pet taxi as we were carrying it to the car and ran up a tree. We were unable to get her down in time for the appointment, so we needed to call the veterinarian and tell him what happened, and he waited there at the office until we got her down from the tree.

Now we keep the pet taxi hidden downstairs and bring it up right before we are ready to go to the veterinarian. I usually hold her, while my husband grabs her from me and puts her into the cage. Then before we even get near the car, the howling begins. It is actually quite a funny experience, however it is hard to keep her quite and the neighbors do look over at us when this happens. Most of our neighbors own dogs, and don’t understand what is going on when we put our cat in the pet taxi.

Once she is in the office, she seems to calm down, but sooner or later she realized she will be going back into the taxi for the dreaded ride home. This emergency visit was unexpected; usually we only need to take her in once a year for her yearly physical and booster shots.

It happened on a Saturday evening. I had let my 4 pound Chihuahua out into the back yard to run around a bit. I have a six foot vinyl fence, so there was never any worry that harm could come to my tiny friend.

I was wrong. Our new neighbors apparently had a dog; a large dog that was some type of mixture of pit bull and mean. I had not even met my neighbors yet, but that was soon to change.

As little Rocco went about playing king of the yard, the neighbor’s dog jumped my six foot fence and was on my Rocco in a second flat. He grabbed him up in his mouth and began to shake him. The next minute or so seemed to take forever as my husband rescued my dog and chased the hell-hound back home.

Rocco had to be rushed to the emergency vet. The closest one was nearly 30 miles away. We reported the incidence to the police as we were on our way to the vet. The local police department understood that we wanted to rush Rocco in and not wait for a patrol car. So we were off to the vet.

The emergency clinic was really small, I was surprised. The doctor, however, was the “biggest” person I have ever met. She was so kind and sympathetic and she was compassionate. She listened intently to what happened as she gently examined my Rocco.

Rocco did not survive the evening, the damage was too severe, and the shock to great for his little body.

He was simply injured so extensively that there was nothing that could be done. The kind vet told me she could go to some very extensive life saving techniques, but the chance for infection and additional shock was very great.

I was willing to risk it for my little dog, but the decision was made for me. As we talked, Rocco passed away. The doctor was so kind when she gently told me that he was gone. He was in my lap, and I did not even know. She let me stay in the room for a while by myself, and gave me a hug as I left.

I recently had to take my cat to the veterinarian. She is an American short hair tabby, approximately two and a half years old. She has never needed any veterinarian care before. She developed a cut on her front right paw, however, that I suspected might be getting infected. After treating it myself with hydrogen peroxide and pain relieving antibiotic cream, she still continued to favor the paw and avoid putting her weight on it.

After a couple of days I decided to take her to the vet. She was surprisingly well behaved and didn’t whine very much about being in her cat carrier. The vet took very good care of her. He suspected that the reason she cut her paw is because the pads on that paw were very dry. He gave her intravenous hydration, cleaned up the cut and drew some blood to make sure she was healthy. As it turned out, she was. The vet gave me a week’s worth of antibiotics to give her, as well as a satellite dish shaped cone to put around her neck to keep her from licking the cut. He also recommended rubbing lotion on her paw pads periodically. Specifically, he recommended a cocoa butter based cream, which I happened to already have at home.

In addition, the vet recommended changing her litter from the clay pebbles that she had to something called “Yesterday’s News”. It is made from recycled newspaper. The previous litter had a tendency to stick to her paws and got worked up into the cut, which was no doubt irritating and increased the possibility of infection. I also had to vacuum very thoroughly to get rid of the bits of litter that she had tracked around my home. Though very time consuming, she never got any more of that troublesome litter stuck to her paw while it healed. The new litter performed admirably. It doesn’t clump, but it doesn’t get tracked everywhere, thus making for much easier cleanup.

Ultimately, I had to remove the satellite dish collar from my cat. She did lick the cut, but I kept it clean manually with antibiotic cream and the occasional hydrogen peroxide. When she had the collar on, she would freak out and knock things over by sprinting around the room. Despite not having the collar, her paw healed quickly and is now in great shape.

Overall, I would say that he did a very thorough job!