We adopted our girl a year ago. She is cuddly, spunky, and very sweet. She is also extremely protective of us around other animals and people. When we take her to the vet, she is a hot mess express - growling, trying to bite, squirming, peeing in herself, pooping on the floor, etc. you name it, she probably does it at the vet. It doesn’t help that it’s Covid and we aren’t allowed to join her inside most places. They have used treats, calming and kind voices, muzzle (which she got out of like Houdini???), and multiple leashes.
Flash forward to this morning (4:30am) and she jumps up to our faces in bed panting, breathing hard, rock hard/bloated stomach, shaking, drooling - all of the horrible tell-tale signs of something horribly wrong.
I take her to the emergency vet and she is acting the same anxiety-induced way she always does at the vet. I muzzle her and she relentlessly goes inside with the vet tech (without me). Not even a whole minute later, they are back outside and the tech explains that they couldn’t touch her bc she was growling and peeing on herself, but she “seems fine”.
I advocated for my girl and said this is how she acts at the vet, PLEASE, if you have to sedate her, just do it, something is WRONG.
Now I’m waiting for a vet to arrive which I was told could be a 1-3 hour wait.
I’m so worried that one day a vet will just dismiss her because of her behavior and it will cost her her life.
EDIT: yes we have used “calm protocol” with medicine from the vet in the past and 1. it did not help at all- they still wouldn’t check her properly and 2. It gave her diarrhea for 48 hours.
Sorry you’re having a rough time. Just wanted to let you know you’re not alone. My vet thinks I’m overly protective (maybe a little bit) but I would bring him in whenever he would stop eating which was every couple of months. We finally just determined that it was a thing he did. They basically said unless he has continuous diarrhea or vomiting then he’s probably just having a bad day and that has been the case. While he was pretty excited to go to the vets when he was younger (treats, other dogs, smells) now he knows that bad things can happen he has to be muzzled and takes Trazidone. And he always pees at some point. I think it’s his revenge.
What I’m trying to say is it’s pretty traumatic with the fear, uncertainty, and separation anxiety, etc. You have to be calm because she’s picking up on your emotions. She needs your reassurance that she’s in good hands.
We’ve been going to the same vets for eight years and I trust them to do their best and be honest but as my boy and I are both seniors now I worry about the time when we might have to make tough choices.
Just do your best. Take time for her every day. Enjoy every biscuit.