:yeahthat::goodpost:
I posted about this very thing yesterday. Some people are very condescending at times. I, like some others have already stated, am leary to post at times.

I don't mean to sound rude, but how many message boards have you participated in? YorkieTalk is BY FAR the nicest(and most patient) board I have ever happened upon.

Well, I'm on 3 other yorkie boards, and really the other ones I'm on don't have any rude people, the one group, there are only 8 of us, and it's great. I just come on here, mostly because there are so many different posts and I like to read and see what alls going on

Well, I did take my dog to a vet and my dog has gone thru Acid Bile test and now Protein C test and urine and xray of his liver, Thank you ELIE MAE. My vet has contacted many specialist about his condition but what I did love and why I posted was to see if anyone else has gone thru the same thing since Yorkies are high risk to Liver Shunts. I wanted to further educate myself by those who have already experienced these things. And my vet loves YT because he thinks all of us should educate ourselves about possible situations. So please dont judge, just give your experiences. You never know if you will be in the same situation. I was given incredible advise and places to go on the web and even special foods so that when I have questions for my vet I am ARMED, We Learn from eachother. Thank you all for the wonderful advise everyone has given me. I appreciate you more than you know...I love YT

I'm on 4 different Yorkie sites, and I beg to differ with you.
Just My Humble Opinion...thus far...

Most vet clinics won't take payments--they'll take credit cards/cash/care credit/checks. I work at a clinic and feel bad when people call and say this is what's going on, but I don't have any money. Sometimes we can advise of things they can do at home--or we refer them to the humane society. I know of at least 2 new clients in the last month that have had an emergency and promised to be back next week to pay--guess what, we haven't seen hide or hair of the people. What makes me really sad about that--is the honest ones that truely will come in and pay won't get the chance because of the jerks who walk off and don't pay. I hope all you newbies reading this won't feel like you can't ask questions because you will get a lot of great advice/info on here.

I'll answer your question. But before I do...does it matter how many message boards I've participated in?
If you read my post, I never said anything about a particular message board. I said group of people.
To answer your question, I've been a part of about 5 message boards (on various topics) and have read many more. I've just never experienced the hatefulness that I've seen here. I'm not saying I haven't received good advice here. I have. I'm just saying that some individuals are making several feel unwanted and unworthy of having a DOG!
And in my opinion, thats pretty sad.

lol.. Im sorry but this statement made me laugh. I too am on several different message boards and YT is the most dramatic board I have ever been on. Some people on here purposely post things that they no will cause trouble and drama and some people are just down right nasty about certian things that it just blows my mind and heaven forbid you call them out on it then your the one that's wrong for doing so and dont forget the famous statement, "well this is a public message board so I can post what I want, if you dont like then dont read it" :rolleyes:
However, I have also met some really nice people that generally do care about how they post and they are willing to help you when you truly need it and no matter what the topic is, they keep every post respectful. I have learned a ton on this board and I have enjoyed reading about and seeing everyone little furbabies. :)
I tend to panic when it comes to my animals and kids so a small incident to some would be a big deal for me, however Im very lucky to have a friend that lives less than 5 minutes away from me that is a vet tech and has been one for many years and is always there to tell me what is a true emergency and whats not and she has saved me hundreds of dollars in vet bills. Obviously this is not the case for most people so running to the vets everytime your dog sneezes would get costly and now a days who has that kind of money?? SO I can compeletly understand why people have a tendency to post on here and ask whether or not they should take thier pets to the vets. Some people just dont know what a true emergency is so they ask. How many times have people come back from the vets to post a thank you for the help?Ive seen quite a few since sept. when I joined. So those of you who post often in that section should be proud of yourselves for helping those folks out, not starting a post like this one and critcizing those who didnt know what else to do. :rolleyes:

FYI Ellie Mae and lots of others helped guide me thru this experience by giving me lots of feedback and medical advise they have gone thru. I want to thank all of them....:bravo:

In some, and probably many cases, I'm sure the best thing to do be done is call a vet. However, there are always newbies here and rather than judging them, why don't we just help them out. And if it's serious or an emergency, TELL them to call or get to a vet! I think it's rude to jump on people because they didn't do what was right. I personally don't expect first time owners to know and have it all together. There ARE home remedy's to most minor issues. A forum may give you the info and insight to fix it yourself, a vet may not. I often don't respond to medical threads because I don't have the answers, but I've seen plenty of knowledge here. ;)

I think an initial "in-shock" reaction shouldn't take more than half an hour. I can't even go to that thread anymore. It was one of the first ones I went to after joining, but it made me so mad! Are people really that ignorant, or just no common sense!?

Let's say that people really ARE that ignorant, or have no common sense as you define it. What then? What's the solution?

A seizure IS NOT ALWAYS an emergency...God forbid, if I ran Winston to an ER vet, which is over an hour away, each and every time he had a seizure...I would be an idiot. Sorry, but I did take the posts that references a "seizure" as an emergency to heart. Don't be so judgemental...Stop with the name calling...Also, I have considered taping one of Winston "seizures"...it's hard to explain, in words, what he does...but a video would explain it all. Another thing, by the time I got him to that ER vet, the seizure activity would be long over...they would be seeing a dog acting totally normal, in the ER??? What a waste of a valuable ER vets time. Don't get me wrong, if Winston needed an ER vet, he would be seen by one...but having a seizure is not necessarily an "emergency".
Okay, enough said...

Bottom line - If your dog, cat, rabbit, ferret, mouse... whatever is dying or seriously injured, yes you should take him/her to the vet right away, but some things can be taken care of at home... even "emergencies". Once I dropped a bottle of my meds and I thought Chip got one, so instead of rushing him to the ER vet and them pumping his stomach and doing whatever they do, I remembered that you can induce vomiting through hydrogen peroxide, got online and found the correct dosage per weight. It took 5 minutes to find, I got the peroxide, gave it to him, and 15 minutes later he was throwing up. It ended up that he didn't swallow anything at all, but I needed to make sure and I took care of the situation on my own. When our kitten laid in our hands pooping goo constantly, shivering all over, couldn't walk, etc, we rushed her to the ER vet. Unfortunately we couldn't afford the $3,000 emergency vet bill and had to relinquish her to the vet so she could get proper care. Turns out the "rescue" we got her from lied about her age (she ended up being 5 weeks instead of 8) and she had a severe case of worms. These are just 2 of the MANY examples of situations I've had to deal with. People do need to learn to use their common sense and judgment, but if they come on here and post, we should direct them to their vet in a true dire emergency and not be judgmental. Sometimes though, you can really take care of the situation at home. You can't run to the vet every time they sneeze and the vets don't know everything. Sometimes you as the owner knows what's best for your dog.

This is America, and stupid people do stupid things all the time. The only thing to do is nicely tell them to take their pet to the Dr. If you're so inclined to be reading all that. I've chosen not to read it, because it's way too frustrating. Maybe you like that job, and maybe you can be nice. But I don't think that being nasty to them is any answer!