Our 8-year-old greyhound Derby shattered her right humerus on July 27 while running in our back yard. I called at 5:30 pm and said “I think my dog has a broken leg. Should I bring her in?” I was told yes. But when we were seen at about 6 pm, we were told no vet would be available until 7 pm. It’s possible that we could have gone to another clinic and been seen sooner.
We arrived at about 5:45 pm. My husband went in while I waited with the dog. He said, “My wife called ahead, we have a greyhound that we need help bringing in, we think she has a broken leg.” A vet tech came out and insisted that she WALK in. I said, “Don’t you have a cart?” He looked at me as if I were crazy and said, “Dogs are usually able to three-leg it.” Neither of us could lift her by ourselves, so we watched in disbelief as she hobbled in. Could this have made her shattered humerus worse?
We finally got in and were left standing in an examination room. No one suggested putting the dog on the table, so my husband knelt on the floor with her and held her up. As she stood on three legs, in pain, she grew weaker. After about ten minutes, we decided to lower the mechanical table and put her on it ourselves, so that she could rest more comfortably. When the technician took her temperature, it was dangerously high, about 107 F. Could being forced to walk across the parking lot and being forced to stand on a broken leg for at least ten minutes have contributed to her overheating?
Robert spent most of the hour between 6 and 7 pm cooling Derby down, then got an x-ray. The next day, when we came to get Derby to transfer her to our regular vet, we were relieved to see two techs carrying her out. When we mentioned that another tech had made her walk, they were aghast.
We sent the above as a letter to Grady. We heard nothing back from them after a month. This is our second major problem with them (they misdiagnosed a swelling in another dog's toe, saying it was just her "conformation"), so we are never going back.
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