My 8 month old fell off the bed last week and was limping. Due to the weekend I couldn't get him to the vet until Monday, I took the first available which wasn't his regular Dr., the Dr. on call was really young (20's), she checked his leg and said she couldn't tell if it was a Grade 3 or 4 Luxating Patella because of the swelling, even though I still feel popping up higher in his hip and not down in his knee. She really rushed me through the appt. and checked him for like a minute before handing me the # of an orthopedic surgeon who she had mentored with in college. I waited over 30 minutes to be seen less than 5 minutes. She kept going in and out of the room and it's really not sitting right with me after the fact. He's on meds for one more day and she put him on the Glyco-Flex chews and he's on restriction/rest for the week.
I would have expected her to say, "I can't diagnose him because of the swelling, so we'll give him meds and restriction for the week and then bring him back and then I'll check and we'll go from there." Not "Sorry I can't tell, but here's the number of my surgeon friend." OF COURSE the surgeon is going to say he's needs surgery... she's the one making $1000's from it. (sorry, I don't trust doctors I don't know)
Am I being reasonable to want to wait the week, keep him on restriction/rest and then make an appointment with his regular vet next week to get a second opinion?
I'm so confused and it frustrates me as I want to do the right thing. Sadly, if that Dr. wasn't so quick to move on to her next patient after 4 minutes of being in the room with me I wouldn't be feeling this way.
