Today's encounter with health care
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Emergency vet hospitals are a giant vacuum hose on your wallet. And they get the money upfront often. Would be interesting to know if pet insurance would have covered the hospitalization.
A dog is still cheaper than therapy generally and may be more effective.
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Boris and Maggie are insured. It costs me about $30 a month with a $500 deductible. Covers everything other than routine visits/vaccinations, etc. I have a "care plan" for that stuff.
That "care plan" is about another $50 a month. It covered Boris's neutering as well.
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an hour after he returned from the emergency vet, his wound is finally opening back up, oozing blood and pus. There was an original wound there from a month ago which had healed. Apparently just before it healed, an infection set in, and the wound healed over it, for an infection time bomb two weeks later.
Education is extremely important.
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Short of not keeping any furry, mammalian pet at all, what’s the alternative?
How much would it cost you to put the old dog/cat down and get a new one?
Maybe the vet figured out that “$250” is just below replacement cost such that most people would just pay $250 to the vet rather than pay somewhat north of $250 to replace the pet?
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an hour after he returned from the emergency vet, his wound is finally opening back up, oozing blood and pus. There was an original wound there from a month ago which had healed. Apparently just before it healed, an infection set in, and the wound healed over it, for an infection time bomb two weeks later.
@Horace said in Today's encounter with health care:
an hour after he returned from the emergency vet, his wound is finally opening back up, oozing blood and pus. There was an original wound there from a month ago which had healed. Apparently just before it healed, an infection set in, and the wound healed over it, for an infection time bomb two weeks later.
Now that the cause of the problem seem apparent, hope he gets the right treatment and recovers soon.
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an hour after he returned from the emergency vet, his wound is finally opening back up, oozing blood and pus. There was an original wound there from a month ago which had healed. Apparently just before it healed, an infection set in, and the wound healed over it, for an infection time bomb two weeks later.
@Horace said in Today's encounter with health care:
an hour after he returned from the emergency vet, his wound is finally opening back up, oozing blood and pus. There was an original wound there from a month ago which had healed. Apparently just before it healed, an infection set in, and the wound healed over it, for an infection time bomb two weeks later.
What was the source of the original infection?
Oh, and laudable pus!
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@Horace said in Today's encounter with health care:
he got into an argument over food with his step brother, and got bit.
Interesting. Dog bites are generally pretty clean (unlike
The Beecat bites). Glad that there's a resolution. Gonna be messy for a while, but he'll feel a hell of a lot better by the end of the week. -
@Horace said in Today's encounter with health care:
hopefully the antibiotics will work.
Most important thing is to be able to drain it. Pus is the accumulation of white blood cells fighting a bacterial infection. If they can get out (by draining it), there's more that can come in and fight the infection. If the abscess is contained, the response is self-limiting. The antibiotics will pick up the slack.
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I expect he will feel better, I sure hope so. Not sure why they would need a biopsy when there was an obvious wound involved.
But Loki is right about emergency vet clinics being a giant hole into which one pours money. They will usually offer you the most expensive option.
In their defense, they have and have to maintain a lot of space, 24-7 personnel and equipment your average vet does not have - MRIs, ultrasounds, etc. Maybe even CAT scans, I don't know.
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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I expect he will feel better, I sure hope so. Not sure why they would need a biopsy when there was an obvious wound involved.
But Loki is right about emergency vet clinics being a giant hole into which one pours money. They will usually offer you the most expensive option.
In their defense, they have and have to maintain a lot of space, 24-7 personnel and equipment your average vet does not have - MRIs, ultrasounds, etc. Maybe even CAT scans, I don't know.
@Mik said in Today's encounter with health care:
emergency vet clinics being a giant hole
Indeed. When Boris had his adventure with his neutering, the bills were north of $2K (ICU care, IVs, antibiotics, O2). Insurance covered it, less my deductible. I'd NEVER go without again.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Hope all goes well, Horace. Sounds positive.
Not sure if you mentioned, what kind of dog is he? The reason I ask, is that George mentioned squeezing the puss out, but if your dog is big, with big teeth, even as his owner I'd be a bit afraid. I mean, if you did something like that to me, I'd bite you too!
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@Mik said in Today's encounter with health care:
emergency vet clinics being a giant hole
Indeed. When Boris had his adventure with his neutering, the bills were north of $2K (ICU care, IVs, antibiotics, O2). Insurance covered it, less my deductible. I'd NEVER go without again.
@George-K said in Today's encounter with health care:
@Mik said in Today's encounter with health care:
emergency vet clinics being a giant hole
Indeed. When Boris had his adventure with his neutering, the bills were north of $2K (ICU care, IVs, antibiotics, O2). Insurance covered it, less my deductible. I'd NEVER go without again.
Wow! ICU to spay a cat? You can neuter a male cat with a pocket knife and an alcohol swab....
When I had Booger (my dog) neutered, the best I remember it was less than 150 bucks.
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Hope he gets better soon!!BTW @horace How did your hand surgery go?
@taiwan_girl said in Today's encounter with health care:
Hope he gets better soon!!BTW @horace How did your hand surgery go?
It went well! I can move my thumb again. Still paranoid that it'll far apart spontaneously like after last surgery. But I guess the repair last time was DOA since I couldn't twitch the thumb immediately after waking up from the anaesthesia. I will never know what went wrong. Maybe she tied a trick knot as a goof. Those wacky hand surgeons.
Education is extremely important.
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@George-K said in Today's encounter with health care:
@Mik said in Today's encounter with health care:
emergency vet clinics being a giant hole
Indeed. When Boris had his adventure with his neutering, the bills were north of $2K (ICU care, IVs, antibiotics, O2). Insurance covered it, less my deductible. I'd NEVER go without again.
Wow! ICU to spay a cat? You can neuter a male cat with a pocket knife and an alcohol swab....
When I had Booger (my dog) neutered, the best I remember it was less than 150 bucks.
@Larry said in Today's encounter with health care:
Wow! ICU to spay a cat?
Boris was neutered and had a complication. Apparently they had to intubate him because he became a bit, er, unruly during the procedure and he needed general anesthesia.
The intubation was traumatic, and it lacerated his trachea causing "subcutaneous emphysema." The air tracked into his tissues under his skin and also around his heart. He was sick as hell for a few days.
It should have been, as you say, a 'nothing,' but it became a BFD.
Boris was neutered on Thursday of last week, and he did great. It's almost as though nothing happened. He came home happy and hungry.
This morning, he seemed a little listless, and the first clue was that he didn't sleep with us. The second clue was when I went to feed him, he didn't seem ravenous. He hopped down from the desk he was sleeping on, and rubbed on my leg, a bit, when I popped the can of wet food. He ate about ¼ of the can, and went back to the desk...
Hmmm..
Just didn't look right.
I took him to our vet, and she diagnosed subcutaneous emphysema. Basically, this is a collection of air under the skin. It can occur in various situations. When you feel him, you can feel "pops" like bubble wrap (but much smaller, of course).
The most worrisome is an anaerobic bacterial infection. These bugs produce gas that collects under the skin. However, he had no fever, and the rest of his vitals were OK.Second cause is trauma. If he gets into a fight with another cat (Maggie still hasn't accepted him because he pesters her, a bite on the neck can cause a laceration of the trachea, allowing air to escape into the surrounding tissues. Blunt trauma, such as being hit by a car can do it too. A third possibility is that, during the neutering, he was intubated, and that caused a tracheal laceration. Seems like that's the most likely possibility.
Our vet seemed concerned enough that she recommended taking him to a place where they can give more "intensive" care for him, including monitoring, oxygen therapy, etc.
Usually, the treatment is just supportive - make him comfy with O2, pain meds. If he deteriorates, he might need surgery to repair a tracheal laceration.
The plan is to watch him for at least one (probably two) day to make sure he's not getting worse.
He sure looked miserable when we left.
He's had a horrible week, poor guy.
The red arrows point to the collections of air under his skin:
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
