My seemingly (fairly) healthy senior citizen dachshund started vomiting in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Then he seemed better, and I thought he'd just eaten something he shouldn't have. But later on Saturday morning he declined rapidly.

Because it was Saturday, my vet was not reachable. Her on-call doc referred me to Rehm. I rushed him out there, and was told there was no one ahead of me and the doctor would be right in. However, it took about 20 minutes for the desk to input the pet info into their computer. They didn't ask for much. It's hard to comprehend why that wasn't a 5-minute job or not necessary at all before seeing a doctor since this was clearly an emergency. Young vet with obviously limited knowledge and experience came in after about 30 minutes and immediately wanted to run several hundreds of dollars in tests, while simultaneously telling me my 15.5 year old dog was in critical condition.

I knew he was severely dehydrated and pleaded with her to please start a fluid IV to try to deal with that. Vet yammered and yammered, trying to sell me the hundreds of dollars in tests. It was obvious that she is an expert at playing on the emotions of we pet moms, who clearly love our dogs and want them to survive. I asked if it would be necessary to stabilize him first before anything related to any test would matter? Her answer was, "Yes, but she'd recommend blah blah blah blah blah." Almost an hour after arriving, they finally started him on an IV and intravenous antibiotics to try to stabilize him. And that only happened because he vomited again, on the examining table, and she said she couldn't hear a heartbeat. She rushed him to the back to resuscitate him. THEN told me they started the IV.

They absolutely would not allow me to stay with him or even see him. And she told me it would take about 6 hours before they would know if he was stable. Because I was never allowed to see him, I have no idea whether he was already dead and they lied to me to earn an easy few hundred dollars since they're all about the money there. Vet called 2 hours later to tell me he died. She was surprised when I wanted to come get him to bury him. I could tell by the smell that they didn't clean him before putting him in a box so I took him out and cleaned him up before packing him up to bury him. I could find no indication of an IV having been on/in him.

While my dog was old and might have had something serious wrong with him, I'll never know if he'd be happily walking in the park today if IV fluids had been started in a timely manner. If you can avoid Rehm, do yourself a favor: Stay away from them.

I was notified that this had been posted. Yes, it's been a long time since I lost my beloved dog.

You obviously had a need to write what you did, but you should know that to a person who has lost a pet -- possibly through the gross incompetence of that horrific vet at Rehm, about whom I have now heard more horror stories than I can count -- your comments feel totally cruel and unhelpful. We'll never know whether he would have survived with competent care, will we?

I am a former corporate executive. I know how a business is supposed to be managed. I've dealt with extremely competent vets for years. This place is a money machine that habitually rips off pet owners, especially in emergencies, when they are the only place open. That was the only reason I went there; there was no other vet available. I would not wish what happened to me on anyone, and I would certainly never try to justify their gross incompetence. What is wrong with you?

Please think about the impact of what you say on the intended recipient before you post something so cold and thoughtless in the future. A pet owner, who deeply loved their furry friend, doesn't need some person with no knowledge whatsoever of the situation attempting to validate these blood sucking, inhumane excuses for pet care.