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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Twinkie gave me quite the scare an hour ago!
She came in from the yard (where she'd been grazing, no doubt) shaking, hugely
fat and taut, with white gums and a contracted blueish tongue. I shoved a
Phazyme soft gel down her throat and rushed her to the local vet clinic (the one
I dislike, but they're closest.) No one even acknowledged my presence
(depsite the other patrons standing at the counter oohing and aahing over the
cute fat basset) for the first 5 minutes. When someone finally looks
at me and I explain (near tears, of course) that I think my dog is bloating, we
were quickly put in a room...and ignored for TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES! There
are at least 4 vets at this place, and I heard the receptionist talking to two
of them by name, but no one made this a priority. I could have driven to
our usual vet (18 miles away in the next county) in that amount of
time!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Anyway, Twinkie finally put her front feet up on my
lap and passed a huge amount of gas, after which her tongue was no longer blue
and she had good capillary refill in her cheeks again. She did this again
before we finally saw the dr. He did an x-ray, although he felt confident
it wasn't really bloat, and the abdomen looked really good (just full of
gas.) (It thankfully did not show any obstructions as Twinkie is known to
eat foreign objects...)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So, the rescue is $136 poorer and Miss Twinkie is
happily back on the couch--and I am wondering what to do the next time this
happens to ANY of my dogs. If they have all of the classic bloat signs, do
I bother taking them to the closest place where we'll not be taken seriously or
do I drive on over to my rural vets where we'll be treated like royalty, despite
the time it takes to get there?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>*sigh*</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Susan and the Hoptown Bassets + 8<BR>Nellie,
Murphy, Jeremiah, Walter, Rusty Paws (ATB),Sammy (ATB), Barney Boy (ATB)
& Bert(ATB), Bianca(ATB), Sapper and the fosters<BR>Bluegrass Basset
Rescue, Inc<BR>A Basset is an Asset!</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>