so, K goes to the Banfield Pet Hospital or whatever it’s called that’s associated with/inside of PetSmart (b/c that’s just convenient, yo)
When we started going, about 3 -3.5 years ago, the waiting area was a separate region, benches, etc, and room to wander some. the nurses were cool and nice and played with K while we waited. then a year and a half, maybe two, ago they remodelled (they remodelled a lot of the store b/c they were preparing for the PetsHotel at the time I guess). the banfield became part of the store, really, rather than wholly attached. so the waiting room went away, there’s now a couple benches too close together for sick or temperamental dogs to be sitting at more than one of them (i think there’s only two anyway), the benches are sitting on the edge of an aisle of stuff, and on the path to the grooming “salon”, so people are always going back and forth, and there’s really no room to hang out. except of course, you HAVE TO hang out b/c they got so much slower too. and the nurses are all cold witches who apparently have no interest in playing with the animals that come through. I understand that they’re overworked and probably underpaid, but still. so K and I always play around in the checkout area (which happens to be about 3′ from the vet’s checkin desk, wow!) while we wait. it’s a nuisance b/c of the people, and he gets bored b/c I have to keep him on short leash. but ok
they have a revolving door for the vets. the old ones were cool. then when they remodelled, around there sometime they got a new one, she was good. so was her successor. then for about 9 months they didn’t have a vet. they didn’t TELL people that of course, they were just booked 3+ months out. as in, K needed a shot end of sept that we hadn’t remembered, and the earliest they could fit him in was like xmas. W. T. F. we found out from the PetsHotel folks (who we’re friendly with b/c K goes there freakin’ often) that the old vet had gone ( i don’t remember why), there was no new vet, and the vet they HAD was someone who lived like 2 hours away who was coming in for a few hours twice a week to help out b/c she had friends who worked at the store and wanted to make sure the animals were getting their care. yay her (no, seriously, YAY!). we went to anotehr location who could see us next day, though ;)
now they have two vets again. well, they have two people with the white lab coats that the vets wear (like a doctor!) so i assume they’re vets. anyway, they have two, so K got in on march 1 to get his shots (we came at beginning of feb to schedule him, but they “weren’t booking march yet”, but since I know they wouldn’t give him his shots in feb (too early) …) they wanted him for his full physical examination. normally i take him and we play in the room while we wait, and they take him to the back for the like 5 minutes they need to do stuff back there, we’re gone in 90-120 minutes. but with my new job, I can’t do that, so I had to drop him off for the all-day appointment, where the nurses do the various things as they’re free or whatever. fine, he doesn’t enjoy the kennelling, but whatever.
go to pick him up. FOURTY FIVE MINUTES I wait. I said i was there to pick him up, she told me the dr would be with me in a minute. uh, ok. she puts me in a room after about 20 minutes. crap, is he ok? twenty minutes later I go out to ask her if the dr knows I’m there (b/c I can see him in the back clipping a dogs nails (admittedly, the dog wasn’t happy about it, but still, hello? nurses?), and before I can say anything she tells me she can ring me up. hello? where’s my dog?
apparently the vet is “busy with another patient” (yeah, I could see that. good thing he has a medical degree, or he might be using those nail clippers on the ear or something, can’t tell nails from tails without a degree!) (oh, and ignore the vet standing behind me not doing a goddamned thing b/c he’s obviously not the vet that worked with K or whatever, so I can actually understand that ; although , if we’re just going to say ‘everything looks good’ why doesn’t he go back, ask the other doc “hey, anything I should tell him?” and come in and say “dr whoever is busy right now, but he said everything was good. looking at the labs, everything is healthy and normal. have a nice night”?????)
then she tells me the bill is 127$. we have the pet insurance. THEIR INSURANCE. which covers his shots (b/c they upped the one that PetsHotel requires 2x/year from the previously approved 1x), his physical (duh, otherwise he wouldn’t've had one ; I coulda told you he was doing OK), and everything. W T F? then she starts asking if I want any of the preventative meds, heartworm pills and flea medicine (which we buy when we run out of, like last month), so I say no and ask “but what’s the rest of it? I thought this should all be covered?” (maybe the insurance payment went AWOL …) and she gets all pissy with me that she’s taking off the things I don’t want. Well here’s a thought! DON’T PUT THEM ON YOU SMARMY BITCH?
she told me the dr would call me later if I had any questions (how would he know until he called me? I presume she meant “in case you have any questions”) … but I asked her “is everything good?” (b/c, yaknow, unless it ISN’T OK I’m good), she said yes. Which is good, b/c the vet never called me.
They’re really pissing me off (can you tell?) but they’re CONVENIENT dammit! maybe the vets’ll change again this summer ;)
Oh, but when I g ot home and was looking at hte paperwork, apparently he’s due for his “annual deworming” on the 7th. Of March. 2007. so, like, a WEEK later? hello? why didn’t you deworm him now? does he have worms? I’m so confused. gee, I wish I could ask the vet about that, but HE DIDN’T CALL ME. *grrr*
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