On the weekend I said that I thought Charlie had hurt one of his feet and he was limping - well it didn't get any better, so today we went to the vet. I should have just checked back in this blog - because when we got home from the vet I thought that what Dr. Carnegy said sounded awfully familiar - and it turns out that I took Charlie over to Metro Animal Emergency Clinic back in May for exactly the same thing! Back then it cost me $400 there and today cost another $228 to get the same diagnosis - it wasn't his foot - it's his knee and shoulder.
Poor Charlie is a typical lab and is getting old and rickety and he can't run down the back stairs into the back yard with one leap anymore - which is what he must have done at some point on the weekend - and he pulled the muscles in his shoulder. So now he's once again on a good dose of Metacam for awhile, and ice, and no exercise.And he's not the only one getting rickety - you'd think I'd remember from one vet visit to the next that he's having the same problem. I guess maybe that happens when you have several animals all aging way too quickly and all going to the vet on a way too regular basis.
Don't forget that you can also use Meloxicam (the generic form of Metacam) with usually a fair amount of savings.
ReplyDeleteYou can also shop around to different veterinary clinics, and you can even ask for a prescription from your vet, and have the Meloxicam/Metacam filled at a human pharmacy (also often resulting in savings).
If it's a temporty thing, then it might not be worth the extra effort (except the easy task of switching to the generic). But if he ends up on Metacam long-term, then it's something to think about. :-)