This is the one-year anniversary of the day that I flaked out on euthanizing my cat and went instead to get a third opinion--Dr. Jodie at the Animal Doctor. My cat ""crashed"" suddenly in a matter of hours--kidney failure, anorexia, IBD, heart murmur and vomiting--possibly from contaminated pet food. Two veterinarians insisted that the cat was dying and could not be saved, but Dr. Jodie, who has a wonderful way with animals (she sits on the floor with them on a carpet) and people, offered me a shred of hope, antibiotics, non-traditional medicines like Azodyl and Chinese herbs, and the proper dosage for injecting subcutaneous fluids at home. One year later, my now almost 18-year old cat is stable and doing fine, eating normal food, no medicines, and only getting a small amount of IV fluid at home on occasion. Dr. Jodie understood that all I needed was that *shred* of hope to nurse my cat through a really terrible illness that DID eventually stabilize--in the very least, bought me some time to say goodbye--since it had come on suddenly and catastrophically. My only complaint was that she encouraged me to feed baby food or a raw diet ($$$), which aggravated my cat's IBD--everything normalized when I put her back on the ""junk food"" she enjoys eating. Reasonable rates if you avoid buying stuff in the retail shop. My cat now seems healthier and has a better appetite than before she got sick. I also want to mention that before the kidney failure, several vets refused to clean my cat's teeth because they use general anesthesia and she had pretty bad gingivitis--Dr. Jodie cleaned them right in front of me using acupuncture needles to keep her still--her teeth and gums are now as healthy as they were when she was three or four years old. My only complaint about this vet is that she requires the pet to be ""dropped-off"" rather than making an appointment, which, when the cat was sick, was kind of a bummer, since the office location is fairly rural. But making the trip out to Muskego was a small sacrifice for the year of healthy life my cat has had because of Dr. Jodie.
Pros: traditional and alternative medicine; thorough; TEETH
Cons: expensive retail shop; ""drop-offs"" not appointments
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