Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Impotent and Furious



First off, my apologies to my Facebook peeps who've already heard this. I need to rant. The top of my head is about to blow clean off.

I got home from work last night, and noticed that the Small Dog (Zippy) had some brownish spots on his back legs. I thought it looked unusual, so got down on the floor to take a closer look under the chassis. What I found was some dried goo on the outside of his pecker - looks like maybe dried blood. Poor wee guy! I loaded up my bathtub with warm water and Epsom salts, and filled it up to about chest level on him. I put him in, and basically soaked it off of there. He didn't seem to mind that part very much, though when I started to rinse him with clean water he started bucking around the tub like a bronco.

He's still my little wild thing, even at 17.

At any rate, he's had a small handful of accidents lately (though nothing major), but I've mostly chalked that up to cognitive dysfunction. He does seem to go out, forget why he's there, then come in and pee on the carpet. Sigh. Then about two weeks ago he had that bizarre running through the house at midnight episode, which again I wrote off to cognitive dysfunction. But this... this is an obvious enough indicator to make me think he needs a urinalysis done.

So this morning I managed to catch a urine sample, and tossed it in the fridge. On my way to drop off the urine I called the vet's office to give them a heads up that I was coming. My regular vet (who rocks, by the way) is out this week. The receptionist told me they wouldn't take a sample without seeing the dog since it's been a while since she's seen him (uh... it was late November/early December). Oh, but they don't have anything today... the earliest they have is tomorrow at 11:30 am.

Now that I KNOW he's having troubles the waiting to help him thing INFURIATES me. Not just a little bit, either. I don't understand why they wouldn't just take the sample, and go on and give me something to help him (if it was a clear course of action), and THEN let me bring him in tomorrow. Maybe I'm being unreasonable. But it's Zippy. He's tiny. He's feisty.

Thinking that one of my dogs is in pain makes me a crazy person.

What I feel at the moment is furious at being impotent. I'm almost tempted to drive home, get my dog, and go drop him off in their laps. I want to call them back up and scream at them. I want to go over there and yell at someone.

I won't do any of that because I am a nice person. However, I plan to satisfy the urge by picturing it over and over in my head all day.

I think the Zip-man will be OK... it's twenty four hours from now. My fury comes partially from the fact that I get the impression that the receptionist thinks I couldn't possibly have a clue. What I'm hoping is that by the time I go over there tomorrow I'll be able to have an intelligent adult conversation with the vet. She doesn't know me from Adam. I'll be nice, but firm. That's the plan anyway.

I have pee in my car, in case you were wondering.

6 comments:

Joan said...

Aww...poor Zippy! I am surprised at his age and with those symptoms they wouldn't get him in right away. I hope he is ok.

Laura Carson said...

Update: I've called and harrassed them again, and now he's there. I took yet my SECOND urine sample from him. Hopefully they will get him some help.

Jean said...

I'd be furious too! We humans know how quickly a slight discomfort on peeing can turn into blood and PAIN! It would certainly make sense to run the urine test right away, get him on antibiotics ASAP, and then follow up tomorrow.
I'm thinking they've probably taken more than a little of your limited income over the past while - I would expect much better service than that.
I'm glad you got called again and got him in - keep us posted.

Laura Carson said...

Well, she says no sign of blood or crystals, or notable bacteria. She says there is an unusual amount of green goo (though some is normal). They've trimmed around there, and sent him home with some antibiotics just in case. Now he's home and doing that bizarre running and sitting thing... and he's got wood. Someone suggested maybe it's a sheath infection - which the antibiotics should take care of.

Still furious though. Though they've not taken a ton of my money lately, they've taken enough. Today just for an office visit, urinalysis and antibiotics was upwards of $150.

Emily said...

I read it as Zippy being impotent and furious! That cracks me up! Hope he's on the mend by now :(

Laura Carson said...

haha! Judging by the wood he was packing yesterday I'd say he's anything but. LOL! I think he's finally on the mend now. It's been a hairy few days though.