Never take your pet here

Late afternoon on Sunday my little Maltese was bitten by a very big Airedale Terrier. I found an emergency vet in Roodepoort – Northwest Animal Emergency Clinic. When I arrived, I realised I forgot my mask at home, so I pulled my t-shirt up over my face and held it with my hand. The very friendly receptionist didn't seem perturbed. While I waited in the waiting room for our turn with the female vet on duty, a male vet arrived.

Before he even said anything to me, I quickly apologised for not having a mask due to my panic with what had just happened to my dog, all the while holding my shirt up over my face. As a result, he told me I wouldn't be able to come in with my dog and I would need to wait outside. Heart-broken, I agreed and sat down again. To which he replied, "No, I mean you need to wait outside of the building". What the actual hell!? So, I asked if I couldn’t buy a disposable mask from the practice. His answer – “No, we don’t have any”. What!? In a place where you operate on animals, you have NO masks!? Like the one you are currently wearing!? He was so horrible. I just went outside and burst into tears. It was bad enough that I couldn't be there to comfort my baby boy, but it was adding insult to injury that I was treated like a leper when in such a state of panic.

While I was outside on the phone crying to my husband, he came out to tell me what the plan moving forward was. He wasn’t phased in the least by all my tears. He showed me a photo of my dog’s shaved back which revealed a lot more bite marks than I expected. He said that all the flesh that was bitten would need to be surgically removed and my dog would need to stay overnight. I had to pay R4500 upfront, till in tears because I was so emotional. This guy was so cold. In hindsight, I wish I'd taken my dog away at that point and left, but I was so stressed about the damage that I let this guy carry on with him.

Also, later something occurred to me to prove that this Vet was just being an nasty for no reason - if it was unacceptable for me to even wait for feedback in the waiting room with my t-shirt up over my face, why was this suddenly acceptable when I had to come in and pay R4500?