<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000'><P>I just got to read some of my back email and like what Robert said about these teaching hospitals. I had an experience two years ago with Metropolitan which is an emergerncy clinic as well as a hospital you can get regular appointments at too. They are all so called specialists. I had a bad experience when it was over the weekend and I couldn't get my regular vet so I took Ruby in to see what was wrong with her stomach. She was having issues with diarehhea and vomiting and she became lethargic on me on a Sunday night. I got to the clinic at 7:00 and didn't get taken until midnight. They said they had a lot of emergenies. Really, I only saw about 3 dogs come in after me. Well long story short. They took blood work which was negative. Then they did an ulltrasound of the abdomen. Later the dr comes out to tell me that he believes she has a neoplasm in the small intestine. Cancer. She is 9 yrs old. He does a biopsy. I leave and come home. Two days later he calls to tell me they couldn't get enough tissue so the biopsy could not be read. He wants me to wait two weeks, come back and have her catherized, sedated to redo the biopsy. I am now 500.00 in debt. He says he will not charge me for the visit. I tell him no way. I don't go back. I am not doing heroics on her if it is cancer and decide to wait it out. I then call my vet who says the same thing. They sent a report to her but no xrays. I had the xrays. Later when she came for a visit I showed the xrays which she said didn't look like a cancerous mass. It has now been over two years since the diagnosis and she is still with us and doing great. She turned 11 in November. I h ave not been back to that hospital since. My vet said it is a teaching hospital and that is why they charge you 125.00 just to walk in the door. Sad, no wonder pets are being put down instead of being helped. </P>
<P>On another note. We adopted a 7 yr old Basset named Mr. Horn from an animal rescue about 6 weeks ago. We now have 5. He was a breeder dog raised in a cage. He was very small and thin when we got him. He is doing great now. I don't want to overfeed him and I am not sure how much food I should be giving him to help him gain weight. Can someone tell me how much dry and canned he should have and how long it might take to see a visible difference? May I say that I can not believe how much he loves people and the other dogs. He is one big mush. We housetrained him within two weeks to our dog door. Its like he lived here all his life. Oh yeah, he found out about sleeping on the sofa within a couple of days of being here. He has become one of the loves of my life. Unfortunately the two girls that were with him are very shy and nervous. They will probably live out there life at this no kill rescue unless someone is willing to work with them. It shows me how much more we need to work to shut down these puppy millers.</P>
<P>Renee<BR></P></div></body></html>