Zaha Slavin

Age: 4 years
Breed: Pembroke Welsh Corgi
​​​​​​​Diagnosis: Pancreatitis

Last Thanksgiving day our family drove up to Lake Tahoe with our two Corgis in tow to spend a few days. By Thursday evening Zaha did not seem like herself. She refused to eat dinner. She went to bed early and woke up at 1 a.m. and vomited quite a few times. She stayed up for the next few hours vomiting and running outside with horrible diarrhea. We were very worried about our girl, but there was not a 24-hour vet anywhere close by.

We waited until the next morning and brought her to a vet in Lake Tahoe. Luckily he was able to see her right away; he did blood work and x-rays and diagnosed her with acute pancreatitis. He said she would require an overnight hospital stay. I asked if they had 24-hour staff to stay with her throughout the night. He said no, she would be "on her own" during the night. This was not acceptable to us. If our baby was sick enough to stay in the hospital someone better be there to watch her. We asked the vet to get her started on an IV and we decided to drive her to Bishop Ranch that day. I knew that you had 24-hour staff and that was the only way we felt comfortable leaving our girl overnight. We called the office that morning and told them that we would be coming later in the day. We arrived that afternoon and the staff was completely ready for us. The doctor assigned to her case was wonderful! She spent a lot of time talking with us and reviewing the other vet's notes to get the complete picture of the case. She was very thorough and agreed that Zaha should stay the night.

A few hours after we left Zaha, the doctor called us to let us know that Zaha was doing well, and that she was leaving for the night. She told us that we were welcome to call the hospital at any hour of the night to speak to the tech and check on Zaha. This call really put my mind at ease. Just knowing that I could call at any time was just the peace of mind I needed. Pancreatitis can be fatal.

The doctor called the next morning to let us know that Zaha was doing great. She spent a lot of time on the phone with me answering my questions. She wanted to keep her for a few more hours, but we were able to pick her up later that day. Zaha was back to her sassy self when we came to get her; she looked great. The doctor also called us the day after we got Zaha home to see how she was doing -- I really appreciate that kind of follow-up -- I felt like she really cared about her. We completely trust your facility to give our babies the best of care.

Sybil Slavin