Call the Vet

After a scorching Easter Sunday we've had a chilly Easter Monday: I needed to wear a fleece when we went for our daily walk this morning but it warmed up after lunch when the sun broke through the clouds.

In the past week we've had to call the vet in twice - and received very different service.

The first time was when we noticed that Billy was showing signs of colic. This is Billy:



The vet arrived promptly and as he pulled on to the drive I took two steps back to socially distance myself only to be told not to bother. The examination was short and to the point and the slight colic was remedied by a painkilling injection and a follow up call to check the next day. Case closed.

The second time was when Sascha went down with a bad case of colitis. This is Sascha:


He'd been under the weather the previous day and the usual remedies of starving him for 18 hours and then giving him a bland diet of potatoes and white fish did not produce the usual result, so I called the vet.

Usually a call to the vet involves an appointment at the surgery but in the current close down the appointment was for a vet to call me back at a specified time. I answered his questions fully and he realised that it was not a complex issue so I was able to drive to the surgery and pick up a steroid tablet, antibiotics and a several tins of bland food. Even at the surgery there were distancing protocols to follow: the vet placed my prescription on a table in the carpark for me to pick up and then he went back into the surgery and called me on my mobile so that I could pay.

The medicines have done their trick and Sascha likes the bland diet so within 24 hours he was back to what passes for normal.



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