May 8
To whom it may concern:
I am writing for all those poor animals and their owners who have had to endure the emergency care at Emergency Pet Clinic, Inc.in New Braunfels, TX. For the concern over all the lost hours of productivity, at the least, but more importantly, the unnecessary suffering of sick or injured pets as well as their owners frustration and heartache. I would like to share the experience my family and pets had today, Sunday, May 4th.
Today, my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel had been trying to deliver her third puppy for over two full hours. I did a cervical exam on her after one hour, only to find one leg of a puppy emerged from the cervix. I pushed the leg in and backed the pup up a bit, hoping the repositioning would assist the delivery.By the time two hours had elapsed, the puppy had resumed the exact same position as before. I then made the decision that we HAD to get her to the emergency vet clinic for an emergency C-section with the hope of saving the two remaining puppies, in spite of the clinic's insane charges. EVERY MINUTE THAT PASSED WAS CRUCIAL! We drove our girl to New Braunfels in order to take her to the Emergency Vet Clinic, Inc.
As soon as we arrived, it was explained to the person at the desk that our girl needed an emergency C-section. To cut to the chase, it took them one hour and twenty minutes before they even began to PREPARE my girl for surgery. All the while, my girl was stoically suffering, while the puppies were being placed under CONTINUED long-term pressure with every contraction, even though they had already been stressed when we brought them in. There was also a high risk that a placenta could separate from the wall of uterus, cutting off the oxygen supply to the puppy, as a result of the long-term contractions with no puppy being produced.
When the puppies were FINALLY delivered, weighing a respectable weight for their breed, they had difficulties and had to be placed in an incubator. (Big surprise!) Were were instructed to keep the puppies on oxygen when we brought them home, which we are fully capable of doing. We were also told to get some calories in their little bodies right away when we got home.
The assistant told us they were finishing up on the mother, and asked us if we would like to have the puppies. We told them that was fine, we will take the puppies. After the assistant took the puppies out of the incubator and handed them over to us, we were presented with a release of responsibility to sign. Okay. No problem. Expecting to see our girl, the dam, emerge from the back room any minute, we waited... And waited... And waited. The puppies were showing increasingly troublesome signs of respiratory complications the longer we waited. After 30 minutes with no oxygen, we finally asked if they could be placed back in the incubator until their mom was ready for us. We inquired as to why they let the puppies go before their mom was ready to go. The response we got from the assistant was that we told her we wanted the puppies. Yes, we did indicate that we would take the puppies when asked since we were told they were finishing up on our girl. We wondered why we were even asked when our girl was so far away from being ready to leave. After being told to put the puppies on oxygen and nourish them just as soon as we arrived home with them, we naturally assumed they would not let the puppies go until their mom was also ready to leave.
All in all, from time of arrival to time of departure, was approximately four hours. This was twice as long as it should have taken, start to finish. During this four hours, three other pet owners took their pets and left.
So, here I am, home with puppies. I have them on oxygen in a makeshift incubator, and I'm tube feeding them every two hours with formula diluted with enzyme water. This will go on all night long. I will be doing this until tomorrow afternoon, at which time I will place them on full strength formula with three hour feedings, day and night. I will continue this schedule until we either loose the puppies or they improve enough to be placed with their mom. I am now expected to perform childcare, pet care for our show dogs, (Our girl has three titles, so these puppies are valuable.) normal household duties, as well as upholding a three hour, around-the-clock, feeding schedule. I think I'm exhausted already!
What makes me so incredibly angry is that THIS COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED! If our situation had been treated like the emergency it was, there is a very high probability that the puppies would have been in much better shape at birth. I can't help but wonder how many pet lives have been lost as a result of receiving NO emergency care at the Emergency Pet Clinic, Inc.in New Braunfels. To be sure, we may still loose our two valuable, much loved puppies. Surely there has been unnecessary suffering and worsening of true emergency conditions as a result of being forced to wait unbelievable lengths of time for so-called emergency treatment. When those outrageous prices are paid for EMERGENCY care, one expects to receive just that. (Our four hour ordeal cost us $1280. We were forced to put it on a credit card.) Instead, we received much poorer care at a much higher cost than our own vet would charge.
Our vet, as well as many vets in the area, discontinued their after hours care since this new emergency clinic opened. What a tragedy. I wonder if these animal care professionals truly understand what the cost has been to the animals. But then, I know they deserve to have a life, too.
What an awful situation for some people, such as show breeders, to be in.
To those who say, That's just the way it is, I would like to suggest that's the way it will always be unless there is an outcry from pet owners who are opposed to this negligence and who obviously love their pets or they wouldn't agree to pay those extreme prices. For the sake of my puppies, who may not survive because their birth did not include the greatly needed emergency care, I, for one, am not going to roll over and beg for more of the same.
Sincerely hurt, concerned, and disgusted,
Sheryl
P.S. Follow up on puppies: After 36 hours of around-the-clock care, both puppies passed within 30 minutes of each other. We'll see you when the smoke clears, babies!
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