So. I was home with the flu yesterday. I noticed our house-rabbit wasn't well--no interest in his morning greens, not running around the house as usual, his breathing was fast, and he couldn't seem to get comfortable.
Husband's out of town for work, training, I have the afore-mentioned flu, the road is a sheet of ice....what to do? Call the vet and take him in, of course. So, I call our vet's office. "Oh! Oh, we don't do bunnies anymore, just dogs and cats!" Now, I'd last had him in for a check-up about two months ago and no mention was made then of switching to just cats and dogs. No point in shooting the messenger, but I did express that it would've been nice to send out a notification to their established patients' owners to give them a heads-up. " Well, the website says just dogs and cats! " was the somewhat snippy reply. I checked this morning and yes, yes it does--about three pages into the website. Most people that have used this vet before are only going to see the first page while getting the phone number. Oh, and you might want to update your enormous logo on every page. The one with silhouettes of a dog, a cat, and (wait for it) a rabbit. Great.
Google is my friend. Find another vet, about twice as far away as our old vet. Take old office's sage advice and dig through the new site to verify they care for rabbits. Eureka! Call new vet. "Tee-hee! We keep forgetting to update the website, but our vet that did rabbits left. You could try her new clinic in town 25-miles-away." I mentioned the ice-sheet roads, yes? Not happening. I don't care about my car, but I'm not chancing my rabbit.
Find another vet advertising rabbit care. I call... "Of course! What's wrong? Can you bring him in X time?" I can. I do. A little soft food syringed into his mouth with a little pain killer and he's fine, now. And I have a new vet. And I may or may not have had a stiff drink after returning home from that drive.
Tl;dr: it would be nice if vets, like other doctors (mostly), had the common decency to alert their patients when they're discontinuing a practice so you can plan ahead for emergencies. Where's my damned Theraflu?
Husband's out of town for work, training, I have the afore-mentioned flu, the road is a sheet of ice....what to do? Call the vet and take him in, of course. So, I call our vet's office. "Oh! Oh, we don't do bunnies anymore, just dogs and cats!" Now, I'd last had him in for a check-up about two months ago and no mention was made then of switching to just cats and dogs. No point in shooting the messenger, but I did express that it would've been nice to send out a notification to their established patients' owners to give them a heads-up. " Well, the website says just dogs and cats! " was the somewhat snippy reply. I checked this morning and yes, yes it does--about three pages into the website. Most people that have used this vet before are only going to see the first page while getting the phone number. Oh, and you might want to update your enormous logo on every page. The one with silhouettes of a dog, a cat, and (wait for it) a rabbit. Great.
Google is my friend. Find another vet, about twice as far away as our old vet. Take old office's sage advice and dig through the new site to verify they care for rabbits. Eureka! Call new vet. "Tee-hee! We keep forgetting to update the website, but our vet that did rabbits left. You could try her new clinic in town 25-miles-away." I mentioned the ice-sheet roads, yes? Not happening. I don't care about my car, but I'm not chancing my rabbit.
Find another vet advertising rabbit care. I call... "Of course! What's wrong? Can you bring him in X time?" I can. I do. A little soft food syringed into his mouth with a little pain killer and he's fine, now. And I have a new vet. And I may or may not have had a stiff drink after returning home from that drive.
Tl;dr: it would be nice if vets, like other doctors (mostly), had the common decency to alert their patients when they're discontinuing a practice so you can plan ahead for emergencies. Where's my damned Theraflu?
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