Complete change of plans

Going on the assumption that Dr. Dentist at OSU was going to want to see Kaswyn, I started making some calls to see if I could get someone to take Kaswyn down to Columbus soon. Susan couldn't do it because she was scheduled to work every other day, and if the tooth was pulled I already knew that he might have to spend the night there. I called my friend Z, but she was on her way to an event with her horse. She suggested that I call Dr. G and see if he could take a look at him, since his place is much closer than Columbus.

Now, Dr. G is the lameness expert, but he is also an excellent all around vet. And if he'd presented with something that he doesn't think he's the best equipped to handle he will send you to one of the many doctors that he holds in high regard. He is also the co-owner and senior vet at the practice where Kaswyn's vet, Dr. B works. Everyone knows how talented and knowledgeable Dr. G is, including his staff. He is the only one who is referred to as simply "Doc". Many of the vets also call him "Poppa" since he had his practice when most of them were born and they grew up watching him.

His staff isn't the only one who thinks he's the best. I think he's the most trusted vet in the area, and he's always been very nice to me personally. Marge says "If Dr. G told me my horse needed a fifth leg, then I'd go looking for a donor and sew one on." Marge had the pleasure of having Dr. G make barn calls. He has since stopped doing that, and only sees horses at his clinic, where it's always booked. He runs a tight ship, but still has time to sit and discuss every x-ray and answer every last question. And I always have lots of questions.

I took Z's advice and called Dr. G's clinic. I asked the gal who answered the phone if Dr. G saw dental patients. She said that he worked closely with other vets who did dentistry. I think explained to her that Kaswyn was seen by two vets at the practice, that they were going to send the images of his teeth to some dentist, but that it's been a week and I hadn't heard anything so I wanted to bring Kaswyn over and have Dr. G look at him. She put me on hold.

Dr. G picked up the phone. He told me that my horse needed to see Dr. R, who was very good and would be out at the other clinic location the next day (that's today, Wednesday). I asked if this vet did dentistry, and he said yes. Then I asked if he was experienced with dentistry, since you don't need to have a degree or license to do dentistry on horses. Dr. G said "Dr. R was s surgeon at OSU for 25 years. He is the best there is, and I would let him operate on my wife if she needed it." Then he told me to call the other clinic, ask for a certain person, and get it all set up.

Great! The other clinic is much closer than OSU, and with Dr. G's recommendation I felt comfortable sending Kaswyn over there. I called the clinic, spoke to the specific person, saying that I was instructed by Dr. G to call, and got Kaswyn an appointment at 12:00. However, there were two problems. I still needed to get a ride for my horse, and I had to work Wednesday.

First I tackled the trailering issue. Susan was nice enough to ask a friend of hers to take Kaswyn over there for me. Trailer Man needed to be back home at around 3:00, which should work out. Assuming that Kaswyn gets seen by the vet at 12, we should know soon after that if he needs surgery. If he needs surgery then he'll need to stay for two or three days, depending on how extensive the surgery is and how well he's recovering. So if he needs surgery, Trailer Man can just go home. If not, Kaswyn can just go back to the barn.

Then I had to ask my boss for the day off. I knew this would be a problem because we are short staffed on Wednesdays because someone has the day off if they are working the weekend. When I asked my boss said that she wasn't going to be in tomorrow so she couldn't help out, so I couldn't take the day off without really screwing everything up. I told her I'd try and work it out and went to think it over. Rescheduling the vet is not an option, since I was told that he is only at the clinic twice a month.

It got complicated with lots of phone calls and changing plans back and forth, but the final plan is to have Marge go with Trailer Man to the clinic with Kaswyn while I go to work all day. I really really want to be there, but I can't take the day off and I can't afford to get fired over this. I will call the clinic to tell them what the story is and have Dr. R call me to discuss his findings with me. If Kaswyn is going to have surgery I will be able to run over there after work to see him and maybe get more info from the vet if he's still there.

Somewhere in the middle of the arranging I got a call from Dr. B. He wanted to know what was going on with my horse. Now, I had told the two vets last week that Dr. B was Kaswyn's vet and that Iw anted him to know what was going on. Every time in the past week that I've called the clinic I've said that Dr. B was Kaswyn's vet and to please keep him updated. However, talking with him on the phone it felt like he didn't know how Kaswyn was or that I had called a bunch of times. I'm irritated that he didn't seem to get all my messages. This didn't happen when I was dealing strictly with Dr. B and would just call his cell phone if I had a issue. Maybe I just need to do that in the future, because there was obviously a breakdown in communication somewhere.

When I told Marge about it, she said that she thinks that Dr. G called the other clinic and rolled some heads. She has been appalled about how I've been treated as a client, and said that Dr. G will not put up with blowing off a patient. Whatever happened, it worked, because my horse has an appointment with a former OSU surgeon who carries Dr. G's stamp of approval, I've spoken to my vet for the first time since this all happened, and I have good people to take Kaswyn over there while I work so I can keep my job. The situation is as good as it can be, considering Kaswyn might have to have the tooth pulled.

I'll post more when I have more info about what the vet has to say.