This past weekend was pretty eventful… One of the things that took place was Baobao, one of our cats, and her increasing difficulty in breathing. Grace started noticing it last week. But it was barely noticeable. And the symptoms took place rather irregularly and resembled coughing for hairballs. So we didn’t think much of it. Then came Sunday when she was breathing rapidly at twice the rate of our other cat. So we decided to take her to one of the emergency pet care vets around town.
Of the two possible causes for her rapid breathing, it turned out that the cat has, get this, asthma. I sure hope she’s not allergic to her own dander! (That’d be tragic if that were the case)
So I got some prescription pills and paid the hefty ER bill and was happy everything was much better (and cheaper; but not that cheap) than I thought. They tried to keep her in an expensive H2O chamber for 7 hours for observation (almost $200 just to breathe that pure oxygen; yummy). But Grace was like… “Um, thanks. But no, thanks.”
All in all, I still highly recommend the staff and Doctor David Novotny of Emergency Animal Clinic of San Jose. They are very friendly, communicative and very understanding. For example, when the staff at the front desk saw how Baobao was breathing, she immediately took her to the back of the clinic for treatment even before I filled out and signed any form!
The admission fee was slightly higher than another emergency clinic that we researched. But in comparison, the other clinic got plenty of bad reps for its staff’s indifference to the pets and their rude behaviors towards the owners. Also, I didn’t think the fees were too outrageous given what I’ve read online with some of the other ER vets.
It’s all good.