Animal care in great
demand
We
adopted Mimi about 15 months ago when she was already 10. She was not in the
best of health - overweight
for being fed with “growing” diet, dry eyes with sticky lashes, blood in urine,
dry skin etc. On top of all these, she sometimes gasped with the tongue out.
As
Mimi is a beloved member of the family, we have been doing our best to attend
to her
problems. The expenses involved are horrendous. Her special diet for dogs with
urinary stones is $150
a bag of
1.5 kilo. Three small bottles of eye drops cost $922. We simply cannot understand why animal medical
care is so costly.
But
it is not just a matter of money, there is so much inconvenience Last week, I took Mimi to the family vet to check
on her heart problem. Recently, she pants and goes into spasm whenever she gets
too excited such as when she hears strangers passing by our door. The vet said that there are abnormal heart
murmurs and advised us to see a veterinary
cardiology specialist. She gave me the phone number to call.
I did the next day and was told that appointments for
the week are only made on Tuesday. The lady said that I had to start making the
call right after the line is open at 9 in the morning because time-slots are
usually filled within an hour.
So the following Tuesday at 9 sharp, I made the
call. But once the call was put through, it ended. Fortunately, I just had to
touch that icon to redial. That I did. Guess how
many times in total? 183 times! My friend said that they had such experience
when they were making online ticketing. But this was the very first time for
me. At 9:23, I was put through and a recording told me I was number 21 in the
queue. Another wait of 20 minutes! A human voice finally sounded at the other
end at 9:43. In 2 minutes, the appointment was arranged. I was also told the charges,
examination is $1800 and any thorough echocardiogram,
electrocardiogram and thoracic radiographs etc. would start from $6000.
Of course, there is the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals. I am sure the charges would be cheaper. I would
definitely look into that!
We need more animal care providers. Hurray to City
University of Hong Kong for establishing the
College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences.
