The Price Of Gas

Saturday we spent five hours at the emergency vet clinic with Bo.  Bo is fine, thanks, more on him in a moment. Suffice to say, it was five hours of Golden Girls reruns with no sound (probably preferable that way), vending machine snacks and watching people come and go.  It was an interesting afternoon.

There was a lady with a Golden Retriever.  Her dog had eaten most of a hard plastic kiddie pool.  They performed a Pool-ectomy on him, which meant they made him throw it up, he was fine.  He was just happy to be there.  You know how Goldens are.

Next up, a lady who rushed in and pronounced that she had found an injured Blue Jay in her yard and had managed to wrangle it into the Keds size 9 shoe box that she was carrying.  “I think he has a head injury,” she explained to the lady at the front desk.  “I had a heck of time catching him and getting him into that box!” 

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not about to rush wild animals from my yard to the ER. Don’t get me wrong, I am certainly in favor of helping an injured animal, I just think this might be a little over the top.  I did, however, offer a sympathetic smile when she looked my way.  Mostly, I just tried to keep her from noticing my husband’s exaggerated eye rolls as she elaborated on the bird in the box.    

And of course, there we were, waiting for Bo.  He had been throwing up and he was dehydrated.  The vet was concerned about his x-rays that showed large amounts of gas in his small intestines.  If things didn’t get better overnight with IV fluids, they intended to operate on him the next day.

Here’s how the next day’s conversation went with the vet:

Vet:     “Hello.  Bo is doing very well this morning. He seems to be hydrated and the x-rays show the gas is moving through his system.  He should be fine to go home.”

Me:     “That is great news! So, you don’t suspect that he swallowed anything?”

Vet:     “No.  Actually, umm, after the x-rays he released a large amount of gas.  It was pretty bad. That may be all that he needed to do to clear this up.”

Me:     “So, just the gas then?”

Vet:     “Looks like that could be it.  Keep an eye on him though.  Everything, including the exam, blood work, x-rays and IV’s, will be $1,500.00”

Needless to say, we picked him up on Sunday.  I’m calling him the Fifteen-Hundred-Dollar-Fart.  He was happy to see us though, and that’s worth something, right?  So happy that when I put him in the truck, he peed all over my seat!  Guess I don’t need to worry about him being dehydrated either.