TL;DR: Veterinarians in the United States suck. If it’s time to close, they are out the door.
Mine and my wife’s 11 year old English Bulldog passed away today. She violently vomited and her gums and tongue went pale. While her normal vet is in Juarez, I rushed her to West Texas Cimmaron Canyon Veterinary Clinic. They ran bloodwork on her. While they didn’t go so far as to say she was OK, they made it pretty clear that they were going to close. So, they were going to administer fluids and a medication to help with vomiting. Minutes later, the veterinarian came in and told me that she collapsed, didn’t have a heartbeat, and they were trying to resuscitate her.
I called my wife and she rushed down within minutes. They succeeded in resuscitating her. They gave her a few minutes to stabilize and let us in, warning that she wasn’t responsive. Just as my wife was telling me to go in and let her go and be put to sleep, the vet called us in. My wife and I went in with our infant son and she perked up. After a few more minutes, she lifted her head up. We were able to give her kisses and tell her “I love yous”, but not goodbye.
At this point, this clinic felt it best to get her out the door. Because, well, they were closing. They assured us she was stable and could make the trip. They put her in the back of my truck and sent us to the Emergency Vet near Redd and I-10.
I rushed our dog there. She was already gone. While the Emergency Vet will make you pay dearly, they did their best to resuscitate her, spending nearly an hour with chest compressions and stimulants. When I was checking out, I told the lady at the front desk of what had happened and she was appalled. She had said that if they had given her more time to stabilize she may have at least survived the trip and given us the chance of a proper goodbye.
You see, I was ready to ask them to let us say goodbye and give her medicine to put her to sleep. They wanted us out the door. So, it’s like they gave us false hope so that we would leave so they could lock the door. We left about 15 minutes after their posted closing time.
Our beautiful dog of 11 years (born 9 Aug 2015), the one born on our 1st anniversary, the one that saw my wife and I through joy, pain, sadness, tragedy, victory and everything in between, died in the back of my truck near the corner of Redd and Southwestern.
If I had just taken her to our vet in Juarez, they would have kept vigil. They wouldn’t have kicked us out. They would have had the diagnostic equipment besides $300 bloodwork draws to figure out the problem. It’s just with the pale gums and tongue, I was afraid that I wouldn’t have made it. I’m kicking myself now.
Sorry for the rant folks.