Dr. Oz and the Girls at Rose Valley, a lesson learned

[newnormal2014]

First of all a huge thank you to Dr. Oz and his staff at the Rose Valley Vet Hospital in West Kelowna. Time and time again over the past four years, we have taken either our cats, or dogs and he has been amazing. This is a vet that goes beyond and it is so obvious he is not only sincerely interested and cares about your pet but you as well. His bedside manner is absolutely the best I have ever encountered. Not to mention his girls....they too are little gifts from heaven in my eyes. And believe me we have had our share of pet injuries over the past four years, including our oldest dog who had her cornea ripped and burst last fall, by our cat who had come home abused after she went missing for 26 days. Dr. Oz not only took care of our family but our dog ended up keeping her eye and you cant even notice (no scars, etc). You can only imagine the costs associated with this kind of injury.....and some of us just don't have that kind of money readily available....no worries Dr. Oz, who again has been with us through some tough times in the last four years, not only gave us a huge discount BUT also allowed us to make payments AND agreed to monitor and examine her for the next year at no cost to us.....of course the eye only.
Anyways we moved away a few months ago to Salmon Arm and it has been the usual craziness since, moving, new home, etc. I had meant to call and update our information, etc but didn't get around to it. On Saturday, at approximately noon our oldest dog (yes the one with the eye, poor girl) went missing. Now some of you may not understand the depth of love a person has for their pets, but for us - we are in our 40's - our girls mean everything. Maybe its because the kids are all moved away, I am not sure but they are definitely a huge part of our lives. We searched, we had it on the radio, ads on Castanet, Craigslist, (tried Kijijji but for some reason it wasn't working right), a few other websites, called local vets, dog control, SPCA....you get the picture. Anyways we were in shock and it was just the worst feeling in the world, sitting on the couch that evening at about 6:30, cuddling with our other dog and of course sobbing, a strange vehicle pulled into our yard. A lady had noticed a small dog by the highway that just about got ran over, she took the dog and had been trying to find us. She actually turned out to be a neighbor about 2 kms away. She had even called Rose Valley, who of course figured it out by the tattoo in our dogs ear, BUT as I had not changed the information when we moved they were unable to locate us. Long story short our dog is safe and sound, and I just wanted to once again thank the young lady Jaimie Vetter for being such a kind loving person to do what she did for us. We can never ever repay us for that, as our little dog it not replaceable in our eyes. As for the staff at Rose Valley, they tried all afternoon AND the girl working at the front desk even texted back and forth with Jaimie throughout the day and into the evening as she too was concerned. Amazing people, still in this world and I am ever so thankful for them all.
Now the lesson learned. Loving your pet and doing all for them is one thing but wow, we are so blind sometimes. Number one as our animals are in our constant care we have never had a collar on them. Have ID tags, but no collar so they cant wear the tags...duh. AND collars do scare me if they were to get tangled up somehow, we use a harness when walking them. Yes they have tattoos but what good are they when we forget or put off letting our vet know we have moved? Long story short again, we are getting all of our girls chipped ASAP. For those of you that don't know.....and I say this as I was ignorant to what a chip really was.....a chip costs you $60 - at Rose Valley - I am unsure of prices elsewhere - it is a simple procedure similar to the dog or cat getting a needle, they are awake, it is very quick, etc. And the best part is if your animal goes missing you call the vet and they can tell you exactly where your pet is. And of course if someone finds the dog it is also traced back to the owner this way.
I am sure that most of you either do this, or know this, but maybe one person doesn't and will read this and prevent something awful from happening to their pet. I have learned a very valuable lesson and am ashamed that I was so ignorant to a lot of things surrounding the safety of one of the most important beings in my life. But I have learned and thanks to people like Jaimie and Dr. Oz and his staff we were very fortunate. I hope that there is someone out there who will learn from this.
Have a great day all....

[Bsuds]

And the best part is if your animal goes missing you call the vet and they can tell you exactly where your pet is. And of course if someone finds the dog it is also traced back to the owner this way.

You might want to verify this as we just talked with our Vet about chipping our dog. He told us that in order to "read" the chip you need a special reader that only the SPCA and some Vets have. So if your pet is not taken to one of those places the information will not be available.
We will probably still chip our dog because we travel with her and it is extra security if she gets lost.

[matai]

*removed*

[newnormal2014]

Good point thank you. And yes I think the chip is a good idea as well....I just hope none of us ever have to use it.

[workerman]

I too am motivated to sing the praises of Dr. Oz and his staff as they have cared for our two prized kitties for several years, from providing Summer grooming to delicate eye surgery, and witnessed their utmost concern for the animals' welfare and comfort, as well as trying to keep the financial burden to a minimum. I know the Clinic has to make a profit to support itself and provide a livelihood for the management and employees yet I honestly believe money is not their first motivation. We are consistently reading in the news that Dr. Oz is treating abandoned animals at his own expense and it warms the heart to know of such philanthropy toward our furry friends. I'm sure there is more good done behind the scenes than we are aware of. We are grateful and always highly recommend Rose Valley Veterinary Hospital to family and friends.

[MoparPrincess]

Slightly off....No one can tell you where your pet is simply because they're been microchipped, Its not a GPS.....they have to be found first and brought in somewhere to be scanned for a microchip. The SPCA and Veterinarians have the Microchip scanners. Also, same idea as any other form of identification, if you move and don't let the microchip company know you end up with the exact same scenario. I've always tattooed AND chipped my pets, because a person can read a tattoo.