Let me first state that my bunny vet is 2hrs (one way) from my house. It's in TX, so any time I go, I combat a time zone difference--this is hard as I don't get off of work until 4.30-5.00PM.
I've never had any problems with them and (until today) thought they were the salt of the earth.
Piper had a bloody foot not long ago. I got to looking at it and noticed both feet were a little raw. Sore hocks *usually* only occurs when rabbits live in cages with wire bottoms. Piper's out when I'm home and in his (solid-floor) cage when I'm not. I don't know why his feet have/had sores. They did seem to be healing but then I found a bald spot inbetween his chin and dewlap. It looks sort of like an abcess but it's not oozing and it's not the purpley-red color. Last night I'd noticed it was bigger.
K'Cee has a vet appt. tomorrow (shots) and I thought I would see if her vet would see Piper at the same time. For whatever reason, they couldn't. I had mom call Piper's 'regular' vet to see if they would see him after hours -- even though it was not an emergency. She called and they said "sure! call before she leaves town." I did. Spoke with a lady who said, "I'll pull the file. Call when you get into town."
I arrived in town and dialed the number, the vet answered. I told him who I was and that I was told to call when I arrived so that he could meet me at the office. He proceeded to (angrily) tell me that "this was an emergency number only" and "he couldn't see everyone after hours -- they had office hours" and on and on and on. I explained that I was told by ___ that a vet would be able to meet me, even though it was NOT an emergency. He repeated the lecture on emergency/non-emergency calls. I said, "Well I just traveled two hours to come over here. Is there no way you can see me?" At this he goes irrate, "I said we have office hours. This is an emergency line only. What you described to me is NOT an emergency. If you're willing to pay the extra fee I guess I can meet you there." I explained that I was warned about and prepared to pay the extra cost. "Ok." Click.
When he got there, I could hear him yelling before I even got the pet taxi out of the car. The same spiel, "If I stayed after hours for everyone, I'd never go home! I was here until 6.45pm seeing people. There's a reason we have office hours--" and on and on, repeating the same thing over and over. I *ALMOST* walked out that door; I came for help not a lecture. I understand his frustrations but does a miscommunication in his office warrant taking it out on the customer? How professional is that?
The diagnosis....
He looked at Piper and said, "There's nothing wrong with this rabbit. It's healthy. I don't even see what you're talking about." I showed, him. The tone of his reply disgusted me, he smugly said, "Oh. That. That's where he mutilated himself." Why would he do that? "I don't know. It's just something rabbits do. I can't believe I'm up here for this..." I lost it. Totally started bawling. I apologized for wasting his time that __ told me it was ok, otherwise I wouldn't be here. He asked me something else, then started to really look at the place I was talking about. Something sparked his interest and he went to go get 'stuff.'
Long story short, not sure what's wrong with Piper. It's not a mite. It's not a florescent ringworm. They did a culture thinking that it could be a non-florescent ringworm and/or a fungal thing. I have an ointment to put on it.
To his credit, he did come back and apologize, "I came off rather strongly..." I agreed and said "if I'd have known I would've been greeted that way, I'd have stayed home."
I'm somewhat thinking of calling tomorrow and talking with the lady who gave the ok to come. I'm not mad at her but I'm highly upset in the way I was treated/greeted, and want to know what happened--why the doc. didn't know about this. I understand it was NOT an emergency, that it was the doctor's call whether or not to come (and parts of me are grateful that he did), but it was enough to cause me to think of taking my business elsewhere. Am I just in doing this? Any advice on what to say or do? Would a complaint be more formal/carry more weight if it were in writing?
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