Atlantic Street Veterinary Hospital Pet Emergency Center

On the night of August 22, 2010, I noticed that my female chihuahua was staggering, stiff legged, and panting wildly, as well as burning up with fever. She had been fine just 20 minutes earlier. I quickly realized that she was not going to get better with the limited things that I could do, so I called the number for my regular vet and was directed to Atlantic Street Vet Hospital. I called a cab and waited--panicking at the thought of losing my baby girl. The cab driver (Roseville Cab Co.) flew to the clinic when I told him it was a real emergency, plus he could clearly see how distraught and upset I was. All I could do as we dove was say "You're OK" to her over and over, and cry. When we arrived at the hospital I was immediately greeted by a vet tech who could plainly see that my dog was experiencing seizures of some kind, and whisked her away to the back to get started on her treatment, even before I had filled out any paperwork or anything. About 10-15 minutes later the tech came out to tell me that she was doing better and gave me an estimate of how much it might cost. Luckily, I had brought more than enough money to cover her treatment. After about 3 hours my dog was vastly improved, so the vet called me in to explain what had happened to make her so sick. It turned out that the two puppies she had given birth to about a week earlier were draining all the calcium and other minerals out of her little body, and she had a massive deficiency that was causing all her symptoms. If they hadn't administered intravenous calcium, among other things, she would surely have died that night they told me. They saved my baby girl's life! The vet explained to me that she was not going to be able to nurse her puppies anymore, so I would have to do it. Luckily, I am in a situation where I can be home to feed them from a bottle every two or three hours, and I have prior experience raising orphaned litters. We spent about 4 hours all together there, met some really nice people in the waiting room, and felt like we were really taken good care of. The vet, Dr. Jones, must have talked with me, and answered all my questions, for at least 20 minutes. OK, so it was a little expensive (about $370) , but it is EMERGENCY care, and they do it well. The alternative is too terrible to contemplate. I would recommend this clinic to anyone with an animal in crisis. If it's a real emergency they will see you right away, if it's not so urgent, you may have to wait a little while--just like human emergency rooms! The best part is that I have my happy frisky girl back and she's doing great now, and I'm all the wiser for it.