We arrived around 9 pm. We told admitting that our lab had grabbed a big piece of chicken and swallowed it bones and all. He then literally collapsed - and his eyes glazed over."we will ck his heart - $ 45.00, take his blood pressure - $35.00, start iv fluid $100 + oh, lets ck his liver function $65.00" on and on . When the vet came out we repeated what had happened and she said, "do you think he may have been hit by a car?" yes she said that! We did agree to an xray - somewhere in the hundreds of dollars - he was bleeding at both ends and we could tell barely alive. Next, surgery was proposed - about 4 - 5 thousand dollars ("in addition to the $1,500 in diagnostics) We told her we did not have that kind of money -"oh, put it on your credit card!". Our gut told us that he would most likely not make it (which our vet verified the next day when we described what happened, the bleeding,etc). "Oh he is soooo beautiful are you sure??" We asked that he be made pain free and if by some chance he survived the night we would take him to our own vet in the AM. In the next 45 minutes we got 2 calls from AEC - he's still bleeding - are you still sure? I must admit if our economic status was better I would have been tempted to agree to surgery - but we had made it clear that we could not afford exploratory surgery. He passed within the hour - too bad for AEC - they did not get to add another IV fluid bag for another $135. We picked our boy up in the morning - heartbroken. We were charged an additional $150 for 'storage' in their freezer. These folks need a lesson in compassion - I will never forget this dreadful night. Our vet told me that they have taken AEC off of their night time emergency service voice mail for just these reasons. I wish I had called my vet's office first to hear this message and travel instead to Tufts in Grafton, MA or Angel in JP!
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