Nicole King – Parallel intentions

I want to follow up on an article I wrote a while back regarding a local veterinary clinic which left me impressed.

When my Boy (my Pomeranian) was hurt a few months back I ended up taking him almost daily back to this centre.  However, weeks later, apart from showing no signs of improvement I realised how much money I’d spent.  Not only had I paid a full fee each visit, he had “needed” a costly skin test involving Sellotape on his skin and looking at it under a microscope, to then prescribe an extra allergic shampoo, different to the one sold a few weeks prior, also at a high price.

It was around this time I was told that this clinic had become part of a large group. I had noticed the refurbishment and at some stage also the new name on the wall, but the “penny” hadn’t dropped as to what that could mean until experiencing it for myself.  Just maybe they now have to consider healing our pets and giving a return on investment?  Perhaps no longer just the pure intentions we take for granted? Worth considering.

I knew I needed to go back to my “real” vet but as this is a lot further away I hadn’t started off there.  Boy wasn’t improving, he had now been in agony for over a month and his back legs wouldn’t even hold him up to poop.  I had to do something different.

The first thing she did was put her hands-on Boy and feel him. Previously they only took his temperature and prescribed increasing amounts of medication.  We were now sent immediately for an x-ray, something I’d avoided because I’d been told that it would be necessary to put Boy under anaesthetic and being so poorly and so tiny I didn’t want to risk it.

It turned out he didn’t need to be anaesthetised and we could finally see that he had dislocated ribs and compressed vertebra for starters.  Boy spent two nights at the clinic to really get a grip on the situation and when I picked him up I was told to prepare myself because things didn’t look good.

With total conviction I replied that I did not accept that reality and was taking a quantum leap into a world where Boy is fine.  I have no idea why I said that but there was no way I was going to accept that! I thought no more of my words until the next day when Boy actually looked a lot better.  By the weekend the improvement was such that I found myself wondering whether we really had taken a quantum leap into that parallel universe.  It was inexplicable and I don’t think the vet believed me either when I said we didn’t need further treatment or physio, such had been the state he was in.

Even so, it is what it is and it would seem there is such a thing as parallel intentions, in more ways than one.