So W called me this morning about the dog. D called her and said the dog is breathing weird and that I should check-in later. W then called again and told me she was looking up the symptoms on the internet and thinks the dog has Laryngeal Paralysis. Apparently nerves and ligaments in the larnxy stop working and it makes it hard for the dog to breathe, especially in ANY kind of heat. Internet said you can give steroids and benadryl type products to help or have surgery. The dog is a 13yr old lab, so $3k surgery is probably out of the question.
At 3:15 I get an e-mail from W telling me:
"Had to go off on the vets office a bit. I've had it with that place. They never want to have a vet talk to you or give you any advice. It is always just bring your pet in. First they said they would have the vet call me then they have the clerical call me again to give me the brush off and tell me to bring her in. I'll tell you the story later but I told them I've been thinking of switching vets for awhile, partly because I've had this same issue with them in the past. Now they say someone will call me…..ugh!! I'm thinking of switching anyway."
I could tell she was upset, so I called her right away. Should I have waited?
She didn't answer because she was on the phone with the vet, but called me right back to relay the whole story, in detail, as she always does. I just listened and tried to empathize. The vet confirmed her diagnosis and told her the only thing that helps is the surgery. If we don't want to do that, all we can do is wait for her to show that she is in pain and then put her down at that time. No one can say how long that will take, but some dogs don't really have much in the way of symptoms once summer passes and it is nearly fall, so hopefully that will help.
I thought about waiting to call her, but since I thought this could be an emergency situation, I decided not to wait.
