My German Shepherd/Pitbull mix woke me up at around 4:30am on a Thursday morning, he was throwing…read moreup water in the kitchen, I got out of bed and let him out, he came back in a little later and was staggering....
I took him to the VEC ER on 466A in Fruitland Park, his temp was 107.8. I didn't realize how dangerous that high a temp can be, it is deadly..... does brain and organ damage. I was not told he really had very little chance of surviving.
I was frantic and threw my credit card down for 3,000.00 to 6,000.00. They were able to get his temp down, and he stayed overnight. They called on Friday morning and said come get him, adding $400.00 to the $3,000.00 I had already paid. I brought him home, he didn't know who I was, and wouldn't eat anything and when he drank water, he had explosive diarrhea. Not only was his brain damaged but his organs were too.
He just wanted to go hide under a large bush in the yard, and die. My vet came Saturday morning. Told me if a client comes to him with a dog with that temperature he recommends putting them down. They are basically toast. No one knows why his temp was so high, he was fine the night before, ate dinner, acted normal. Took his pills at 9:00pm. VEC diagnosed heat stroke, but he was in an air conditioned house, so clearly that wasn't it.
He was an old dog, not sure how old, with health problems. I knew that when I adopted him a little over 3 years ago, but in spite of his problems, he was a happy, seemingly healthy boy. His blood work was always excellent.
I am beyond devastated, and annoyed that the ER didn't tell me that he had almost zero chance of recovery, so he ended up suffering for two days while I thought he would get better. Now, I have a $3400.00 Visa bill, and a broken heart. I wrote them, to see if they would give me some grace on that exorbitant bill, but they didn't bother to respond. Beware.
