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Post by Nadia & Slinky on Mar 18, 2014 13:14:07 GMT -7
California Veterinary Specialists www.californiaveterinaryspecialists.com/Carlsbad Hospital Phone: (760) 431-2273 Ontario Hospital Phone: (909) 947-3600 Murrieta Hospital (Have not personally visited this location) Phone: (951) 600-9803 My dachshund Slinky had IVDD surgery at the Carlsbad location on 12/31/2012. They have their own doggie ambulance/ transportation services to move pets between their hospitals. We live in Ontario, CA and so we went to the Ontario location. For some reason, they were doing the surgery in the Carlsbad location. Since we had time, my husband and I elected to drive our dog to Carlsbad ourselves. But we did have them bring him back to Ontario on their ambulance after the surgery because it is over an hour drive and we were afraid of moving him too much. Our experience here was amazing. We were very please with both locations, both with the doctors and the rest of the staff. Our Slinky recovered beautifully, but unfortunately he herniated another disc on 3/9/2013 and this time we cannot afford another surgery. We did take him back to California Veterinary Specialist so we can put together a conservative treatment plan. Below are some details and what we paid. - $7,500 for surgery, all inclusive (xrays, bloodwork, 7 day hospital stay, IV, injections, take home meds, bladder expression, etc.) Slinky's surgery did take longer than expected, so it came up to about $1200 more than we originally expected per the estimate.
- $45 Recheck visits (3 times) every few weeks after surgery
- $90 Emergency walk-in fee when he had his second disc incident
- $45 Emergency re-check fee a week after we initiated crate rest
- Surgery was performed by Dr. Dhupa. He called me before and after surgery, and every day he was in the hospital.
- The nursing staff at Carlsbad called me every night to update me on how Slinky did throughout the day (if he peed, pooped, ate, etc.)
- The second disc incident is being treated by Dr. Concannon at Ontario. He is very knowledgeable and patient as I ask all of my questions. He recommended crate rest, and minimal medications. A previous doctor had mentioned that it's ok for dogs to be on Prednisone long term at a low dose, which worried me. Dr. Concannon assured me that we would not need to do this with Slinky, and even lowered the dose he was already taking because he believes that we have already received the benefits from the Prednisone. I like that he doesn't believe in giving the pets lots of medications.
I hope this helps. I am hoping my Slinky will recover after crate rest.
-Nadia and Slinky
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