Thought I would just let everyone know who are travelling with there pets to please keep an eye on them. We are still basking in the delight of the Queensland sun here in St George. Today one of our two chihuahuas was feeling of, he couldn't walk properly and dragging his back legs, as though he was paralysed luckily the caravan park we are staying at here in St George, The Pelican Rest has a Vet across the road. I went to the Vet and spoke with the vet and asked if she would see how my little man is, her response was one of shock - she said she still had to see 4 other patients and one of those was a horse and she wanted to be out of there by 5.00pm and didn't think she would have the time, I just left and went back and told the wife to get the number of a vet in Roma. We left St George about 3.30pm and got to Roma vet about 6.05pm, 206klm's. We had to wait a little while because he was busy with a dash hound that had been bitten by a brown snake, when we put our little man in the hospital cage for the night he was next to the dash hound that had been bitten by the snake, he was flat out paralysed couldn't even blink, so the vet has to wet his eyes every two hours. Our little man wasn't bitten by a snake but the vet believes he may have had a mild stroke and needed to keep him over night on a drip and injections he is only nine years old. The trip back to St George was a bit longer because of all the kangaroos on the road but when the vet rings us in the morning we have to make the trip all over again. So again everyone travelling with there pets, please keep an eye on them and take care, it would appear that even though there is a vet near you it doesn't mean you may be cared for
Wow, an eye-opening response by the vet in St George. Perhaps she may have been more responsive had you taken your "little man" with you to the vet's office so she could see his condition. That may have modified her response.
One would expect that a vet could have seen the "four other patients" and also your "little man" before 5pm, especially if she had seen the condition/symptoms being displayed.
Surely sitting in the vet surgery for that hour and a half would have been better than driving driving to Roma (and further risking the "little man's" life), apart from the toing and froing you are now having to go through.
It is hard to understand the actions and responses of some people I must admit.
cheers - John
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I'm amazed that a vet could be so cold hearted. Please let us know how he is. I absolutely adore chihuahuas and it breaks my heart to hear of him going through that trauma.
Thought I would just clear up something, I didn't mind driving the trip to Roma, no speed over 100 on the cruise control, for that matter I would have driven to Brisbane if I had to. At no time was the vet nasty nor was I, she is the only vet in the town and these people are run of there feet, I could understand to a point that people have to have a life out of work, my wife rang before we left for Roma and the vet again said she doubted whether she would have time to see him, that to me was enough for me to make the trip, I knew he had not been bitten by a snake as he is always with me, as he is now and recovering. If he was to get sick in the next couple of days, would I take him to the Vet here in St George - yes I would. My reason for raising the original post was the awareness over snakes, I had never seen an animal bittern by a snake and it was terrible to see, as of mid day today the poor dash hound was still paralyze but I was told by the vet he would make a full recovery, thank you.
Our little "time share" Jack Russell dog died of snake( brown snake) bite last week. (She belonged to Avoca Farmstay but we allowed Stumpy and Kazza to say she was theirs when we knew she was really ours!!). She was forever off foraging in the woodheap , haystack and burrows chasing rabbits and rats.This time she came off second best. (we were back in Perth when we got the phone call). It will be sad going back this week and not having her greet us at the gate and racing us inside.
there are a lot of snakes about at the moment too, so keep your eyes pealed. They seem to have had a boom breeding season. They're even turning up in places you wouldn't expect, like the middle of suburban areas here in Newcastle
Hi All,we travel with out pet most of the time and she loves it. Just a warning to all it's SNAKE season here in Victoria and we found out on the weekend how quick a quiet fishing trip to our local spot can turn in to nearly a disaster. We'd gone with our daughter and son in law fishing and they brought along their 2 Staffies, while sitting having a cuppa the 2 dogs kept running up to a spot some 20 metres away and we'd call them back, this happened about 3 or 4 times, we decided to move to another location some 20 minutes down the road and so packed up pets and away we went. We arrived at the next stop and decided to have lunch, it was then we noticed one of the Staffies to be walking oddly, her rear end was wobbly, she didn't show any other signs but then would run off and romp. We kept an eye on her, it then became quite noticeable that she was having trouble keeping her back end in control, it kept collapsing, also her eyes looked very glazed. We decided that we would take her to a vet, the nearest town was Bendigo and that was 25 minutes away, thank god for Internet phones, our daughter while in transit looked up vets in Bendigo, called the emergency number, informed the vet on call what symptons the dog was showing and when we arrived at the clinic the vet was there to meet us. We could not find any puncture marks on the dog, but a couple of quick checks from the vet identified that it was a snake bite and that we were very lucky that we acted so quickly. He put her on a drip and gave her the vaccine that covered the Brown snake, (Tiger snake affects the respiratory first) and after 3 hours she was nearly her old self again, it's taken her a good week to fully recover. We are so thankful to the Bendigo Animal Hospital and the quick decision of the vet that treated her. I think it's a really good idea if everyone looks up on the Internet on the symptoms of snake bites on the pets you travel with because the quicker you get them to help the better chance they have of surviving. We think that she must have got bitten while we were having a cuppa as they were very keen on going back to that one spot, also it was a big flat grassy area with short grass and we didn't hear any yelps. Needless to say we are all paranoid now.
Just be aware of the need to get the likely prognosis and quote first without putting undue emotional pressure on the vet. Vets are human too. It is hard to be frank and forthright when confronted by desperate 'parents'.
We spent nearly $2k on the cat the kids had adopted some time before. Brown snake bite is not good in a dog or cat because the snake is usually agitated through prolonged threat. The bite is meant, venom used, not just a warning half-hearted bite. Although our cast iron moggie survived to monster another snake one day, she was very lucky not to have died eventually, or be permanently incapacitated.
Just to add, the cat isn't severely incapacitated and probably didn't get a full venom load.
-- Edited by johnq on Monday 8th of October 2012 06:34:00 PM
