Originally Posted by Rockstar007
Damn I Hate the Vet Charged you that much. Hope the Dogs Pull Through Though.

Yeah, its a racket. When they first got tagged the momma dog had some swelling so I knew she got a dose of venom. The other pup wasn't swollen at that time. Wife wanted to take them to the vet so I told her to take them to our vet in Cullman. On the way she called and the vet told her that they don't stock anti-venom and told her to go to Birmingham... I had to go to work so I was on the outside looking in until I finally got to talk to the vet in Hoover at about 2PM. She said we had 3 options. Of course, option number 1 was leave the dogs and a blank check, number 3 was take them home and monitor them. They had them hydrated, medicated and the venomization was "mild to moderate" so I said bring them home. Their bill was around $1870 plus 10% for the worthless state. Probably could have gotten the same treatment at my vet for a few hundred bucks.

My question is, if the dogs needed anti-venom why wasn't that suggested early on? I know they were running blood tests at first, but suspect that early on they knew anti-venom probably wasn't required and still ran up a big bill. In the end though, the pups got treated and are doing ok.

PS, I look forward to every dang pit viper I can draw a bead on in the future.