Vet Clinics in Italy

We are very fortunate to have a wonderful Veterinary Clinic not far from our home. The fact that they are open 7 days a week from 8am to 8pm is so very helpful since everyone knows that our animals are like our children and they never get sick during times the Dr. is available or when Daddy is home. They even have someone there all night long in the Pronto Succorso (which actually is like the ER but also serves as a follow on clinic with Vet Tech. assistants who can give shots or administer IVs, etc., and by the way is not pronto/fast). I bet you are wondering why I am going on at length about the virtues of our Vet we have found?  Well, Muffin (our dear big black dog) starting vomiting on Saturday evening and then again on Sunday morning (at 6am on our king sized bed/quilt which doesn't fit in our washing machine). So I had the fun of taking her to the Vet to be checked. I walked in and hopefully walked towards Dr. Gandolfo's door only to find that there was no appt. sheet on his clip board on his door. To explain, there are no appointments, you just walk in and sign up on the sheet of the Dr. you want to see. Then begins the waiting... If your Dr. is the popular one, like Dr. Gandolfo who is the Director of the Clinic, you may wait for a long, long time. Oh, by the way, he speaks a bit of English so that is a big plus for us! But, on Sunday, I encountered that scary situation of which Dr. to pick which I don't know and probably doesn't speak English  to put my name on their clip board... I chose Pasqualina and then sat there for about 30 minutes or so coming up with the Italian words to explain why we were there. Remember that I haven't taken the time to learn a lot of Italian much less medical terms to describe Muffin's malady!


Finally, she opened her door and it was our turn. I immediately asked if she spoke English and she said "poco" which, of course, means little... to which I replied I spoke Italiano "poco." We were quite a pair. Even though I told her I spoke little Italian, that didn't stop her from quickly rattling off an explanation of what she thought. Needless to say, I got the point across and she decided the best course of action was to give Muffin anti-nausea medicine along with some fluids. Their chosen method of doing this is by IV (which always seems to me that they are really bad off and very sick - but does not mean that every time they do it). The part you will be surprised with is the fact that she did the first treatment there in the office but sent me home with the bottle complete with tubing and NEEDLE!!! to continue treatment at home for two days. Did you read NEEDLE???  I was supposed to poke that thing into Muffin's back and give her this medicine at home by myself!!! Now I can list "able to administer IV medicine on dogs" on my resume along with legal secretary, substitute teacher, cash cage clerk, professional volunteer and homeschool teacher! God only knows (literally) what I'll be able to add to that list next! Oh, and by the way, Muffin never vomited again after those times on Sunday morning (SIGH)...


Ciao until next time!