On money-grubbing veterinarians who let rescue animals die

Last November, I rescued a mother dog & her 5 or 6 month old puppy. They were malnourished & sickly & soon the baby girl became deathly ill. It was four days before my Social Security check came so I was broke. I took Beezle (my regrettable nickname related to Beelzebub because she is so impish) to the vet I have gone to for years with dozens of sick feral cats & all of my rescue dogs.

The vet refused to treat Beezle unless I had money up front & wouldn’t wait four days for payment. I pleaded since they well knew me & I had spent hundreds for vet services there but they absolutely refused. The little girl had symptoms of Parvo which is epidemic in this area & which is a gruesome & fatal thing to suffer. She told me to go home, feed Beezle Pedialite for dehydration & come back in four days. In four days, she would have been dead.

I threw a hissy fit & foul words might have escaped my mouth. Beezle only survived because a rescue friend found me a nurse who rescues dogs who would treat her, including with IVs & several medications. Another little rescue named Merley also got sick & did not survive because it was one day before my check came. Suffice it to say the vet clinic & I have parted ways un-amicably.

Now Beezle & her mom have been diagnosed with Ehrlichia, a fatal infection, & I called our new vet for meds. They told me there is an outstanding bill of $150 for Franky (Francisco) who had his leg amputated a few months ago for $650–which the vet told us was a discounted rate paid in full by one of my remarkable rescue friends. Until that is paid (even though it’s in error) they will not provide meds to my little ones.

Necessity is the mother of invention. And having friends who value animals is one of life’s great gifts. I phoned a wonderful rescuer who works with a vet as part of rescuing animals & she is getting me the meds at discount just because it’s the right thing to do.

This isn’t an appeal for money; my dogs are safe now. It’s really a sustained rant about the character of veterinary medicine that can turn away sick animals on the basis of delayed payment. Even if I stiffed them for a couple hundred bucks to save a dog’s life, what’s the big damn deal?