Paws Before Panic: The Raw Truth About Pet Emergency Rooms

Dr. Judy Jasek and DeDe Murcer Moffett discuss when pet owners should take their animals to emergency veterinary care and how to avoid unnecessary tests and expenses. We explore the concerning trends in emergency vet care, including excessive testing, medication, and hospitalization that can sometimes make pets sicker rather than helping them recover.

• Emergency vet visits can cost $800-$1000 just to walk in, with diagnostics adding $5000-$6000 more
• Only true life-threatening conditions warrant emergency care (severe bleeding, inability to stand, uncontrolled seizures)
• Pets often get worse in hospital settings due to stress, lack of rest, and multiple medications
• Stand firm by requesting that they only rule out life-threatening conditions and stabilize your pet
• Once stabilized, consider taking your pet home to rest rather than continuing hospitalization
• Check ahavet.com resources tab for DIY treatments and when-to-go-to-ER guidance
• Consider pet insurance for catastrophic coverage, especially for young healthy pets

Find out how you can start your dog on the road to health and longevity. Go to rawdogfoodandcompany.com, where friends don't let friends feed kibble, and where your pet's health is our business.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome with Dr. Judy Jasik

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Oh, snap, snap. Well, hello raw feeders. I'm Deedee Merson-Moppet. I'm the CEO of Raw Dog Food and Company. We're your Pet's Health is our business and we're friends. Like my friend, Dr Judy Jasik, Doesn't let friends feed kibble Now, do you?

Speaker 2: 0:15

No, no way, Not ever, not even the good ones, not even the good kibbles.

Speaker 1: 0:49

You know what, dr Jasek? I saw your substack this week and I love it.

Speaker 2: 0:50

It's so perfect especially from what I've been through, but it was called ER Nightmares, and in this you're really encouraging folks to maybe not go to the ER. But how would you know if you need to go to the ER? So let's start there. Why? Why is it scary? Why is it a nightmare to go to the ER with your pet? Yeah, because and you've experienced this with Lazi you know you think you're going to go into the ER because you know you're you're afraid, because your pet's got some symptom and you don't know how serious it is and you just want to go there and have them put your mind at ease. And that might've been the case maybe 10 years ago, but these days they're just all about really money and selling and doing lots and lots of testing. So you can be prepared. I mean, if you want to be scared, be prepared for $800 to $1,000 just to walk in the door number one and probably for them to even start to do anything on your pet, you better be prepared to pay another what? $5,000 or $6,000? And that's just for them to get started to do like initial diagnostic testing, initial diagnostic testing.

Speaker 2: 1:49

But I think I think the real problem is is that all this stuff they're doing is not necessary in a lot of cases. And so on our website we have a handout that actually goes through the common conditions vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding. You know lames, different things. And then like, okay, some specific signs that when you should take them in. You know lames different things. And then like, okay, some specific signs when you should take them in. You know, serious bleeding, your pet can't stand up. Seizures that don't stop. Really serious stuff definitely need to go. And then we have some suggestions for some home treatments that you can try at home if it's not something life-threatening. But I think the real key in my message in that article is really the only reason to go to the ER is for something that is life-threatening. It's not for any kind of chronic condition, anything that maybe the pet just needs like it has diarrhea so it just needs to fast and not eat for a day. Sometimes they need hydration, they need fluids, so that would be a reason to take them in. But really the only reason to go to the ER is to rule out anything life-threatening. So maybe they need to do an x-ray or ultrasound, maybe do some blood work and then stabilize them If they're dehydrated, get them stable and then get them the heck out of there and go home and rest.

Speaker 2: 3:14

I had a client last week that I talked to and her pet was actually still out of bed at the ER, I think for like three days or something. And it was like the other one is, he just kept doing tests and tests and tests and they weren't finding anything. And I said I think your dog just needs to go home and rest because they're not getting good rest. I mean, they're in a cage in the ER, you know, poked and prodded all the time. Do you think they're even sleeping well? I mean, who sleeps well in the hospital? You know humans. So they're not getting good rest. They're poked and prodded. They're not getting good rest. They're poked and prodded, they're not getting their normal food.

Speaker 2: 3:49

You know just the. I think once you know it's not something life threatening, get them stable and then go home. The other thing is, the longer they stay there they're getting more and more and more drugs, so actually get worse. So they're not getting rest. I mean, what did Lazi? Like they? They went three days. They didn't even feed her because they kept wanting to test her, so they weren't feeding her and you were refusing drugs.

Speaker 2: 4:09

But a lot of people don't know like that. They shouldn't be giving eight or 10 different medications. They're making the pets sicker. That's really the nightmares the pets go in and they're they're doing these things that are actually making them sicker and sicker, and sicker because they need to name something, because the vets won't treat unless they have a name. They need a definitive diagnosis in order to treat, because medicine's just all algorithmic these days. They don't use their brains or their common sense and look at the pet and say, wow, this dog's 6, you know, 6%, 6% dehydrated. Maybe we just need to give it some fluids, send it home to rest and then see how it's like. Like they act, like you're criminal If you are negligent, if you take your pet out of there.

Speaker 2: 4:58

like oh we haven't found a diagnosis yet, so you can't take your pet home. Well, maybe that's exactly what the pet needs, and in the meantime, you can run up $10,000, $12,000, $15,000 bill really, really fast, continuing to do all these tests that really end up telling you nothing.

Speaker 1: 5:20

So I was just talking with somebody the other day. I was in a little clothing shop here close to me and the owner had two Shih Tzus and we were talking and she said VCA killed my last Shih Tzu and she said I will never, ever go back there again, there again. And you know, she's in the very aware, very educated on toxins and that sort of thing. The one, the one thing that she did kind of, she was said you know, one time I can't feed raw. I said why? And she said Well, my dog was on the chi, on the chi diet. Now I don't even know what that, but anyway, it was supposedly, you know, your damp dog, your your, you know, it's all chinese medicine, she said.

Speaker 1: 6:10

And both of my dogs were throwing up profusely and have bloody diarrhea. I said how long were they on the food? She said about a year. Okay, and I said she said, but they got salmonella poisoning. I said who diagnosed that? I said I just don't think that's correct. And it happened to be somebody in their family that was in the medical field and I said so did they culture something? That told them, no, it was just, you know, a diagnosis from symptoms. I said I can tell you, I've never seen a dog with salmonella osis on raw food. But you know, with salmonella osis on raw food. But you know, anytime you have a scare like that, you just automatically blame the food. And why do we do that in people and pets? Because food is the one constant. It's the one constant. You're constantly feeding, you're constantly eating. So it must be that.

Speaker 2: 7:00

Right, well, you have to, you know, but the food gets blamed for everything. You know every itchy skin dog it's like, oh, maybe they're probably allergic to their food. Like the food always gets blamed for, but it and it's always the meat protein too. Like even if people are feeding a kibble, like they never consider that it's the carbs or the glyphosate or all the synthetics or all the other crap that puts and must be the chicken, must be the chicken or must be pork and people say, well, I've tried feeding everything. Really, you haven't.

Speaker 1: 7:32

I don't think so I don't think so I haven't talked to you. If you haven't talked to me, you haven't tried everything.

Speaker 2: 7:37

Okay, I'm just saying so what they mean is they've tried every protein that the brand of kibble that they're feeding offers.

Speaker 1: 7:51

Hey, it's the same kibble, right right, right, it's the same donut. How do we determine, dr Jasek, though, if something is actually life-threatening? Because look, and maybe on your website, ahavetcom, that article, and what is the name of the article that they should read in regards to maybe all of these symptoms or that form?

Speaker 2: 8:10

So it's, and the article you're referencing on Substack, I put it, I put the link on there, but I'll look it up here really quick.

Speaker 1: 8:21

Okay, so yeah, because look, anytime your animal I will say this, anytime that your animal is dehydrated, right, they've been throwing up profusely and they've had diarrhea. Um, a lot of you didn't have that, she just was throwing up. But that is life threatening guys. When, when, when you are dehydrated to that point so you do have to go in and get fluids, I would say that. But how would we know when you're you're saying it? Is it life threatening? What would that look like to you?

Speaker 2: 8:55

So on our, on our website, ahavetcom, on our resources tab, there's a subcategory says home treatments and then the article is DIY treatments and it has home treatments, but then under each category. So I've got diarrhea, vomiting, hives, limping, low energy and then the signs to take your pet to the ER under each of those categories. But if you're not sure, go ahead and take them in, but be very clear, say I just want you to rule out anything life threatening. You know what are the things that are life threatening? And intestinal blockage for Lossie, intact female pyometra could have been internal bleeding, something like that. So be very clear that you just want them to rule out anything immediately lifeening dehydration. They need to be hydrated. So rule out anything life-threatening and stabilize them. So once they're hydrated and they know there's not something that they could die from in the next couple hours if it's not treated, then you say, okay, once my dog's stable, I'm taking it home and let it rest and then you can wait.

Speaker 2: 10:08

You can always give it 24 hours If they've ruled out anything that's immediately life-threatening. Hydrate the dog or cat and take it home and just let it rest for 24 hours. You can always take it back. I mean they make it feel like, once you're there, like you're so negligent for taking them home. This is your pet.

Speaker 1: 10:26

They do.

Speaker 2: 10:27

And it's your prerogative. And if they won't see you back, if you do that, then go someplace else. But a lot of times pets just need to go home, get out of the hospital, just rest for a day and they're fine. And then if they need to go back or you could contact if you have a regular vet that you see that's not an ER, then it during business hours, you could also reach out to them. You might know somebody you can reach out to during business hours if this happens, like during the middle of the night or something. But I think that's the key is, if you're not sure, make sure that they're only ruling out something like that, because they're going to want to test for like you know, like for Lossie, you going to test for Cushing's disease and Addison's and all these other endocrine things, yeah, and all this stuff like, nope, just stabilize, just make sure she's stable.

Speaker 2: 11:19

You know, for the next eight, 10 hours I'm going to take her home and then I'm going to check with my other resources and then, if you need to take her back, you can take her back. Yeah, that's what I, that's that's what I would do. But I think it's so easy to get roped in with this fear. We got to test for this, we got to test for that, we got to test for this. But I think if you stand strong to those questions, then you're going to be okay. I mean, you know you might have still have some things to figure out, but you're not going to get sucked into this loop of doing a whole bunch of unnecessary testing and your pet getting a whole bunch of unnecessary medications.

Speaker 1: 11:55

Right, yeah, and next on our next podcast, I really want to talk about this. When you go in there, they're going to give you an estimate, right, or what it's going to cost to treat your dog. And I don't even get this, dr Jasek, I don't even get this. I want to talk about it on the next podcast. They wrote up the first time for Lossie. It was $5,400 that I had to put down and they hadn't done a doggone thing. So I really want to talk about that, about how we're going to.

Speaker 1: 12:29

How do pet parents deal with this? Right, because they're going to kind of rope you in. And also guys. I will just say this very quickly I don't sell pet insurance at all, but we had a pet insurance policy on Lossie. Now I would have to go back and look and see how much I paid in to that policy. By the time I used it, we were just getting ready to cancel that policy when this happened. It was $8,000, the fee that we had to pay out, and that pet insurance policy paid all but 2000 of that. So I don't know whether I paid in 6,000. On the next podcast, I'll see if I can find that out for you, but if you can get pet insurance. It might be a good idea.

Speaker 2: 13:19

And if it's a young, healthy animal. The last time I bought a policy for a young animal I bought it through a company called True Pannion which I have heard is good as far as they're reliable, as far as like paying claims because certain policies are no good if they don't pay but they had a good reputation. I actually bought it through Chewycom. I don't know if it's different than going through the company itself, but it was like 18 bucks a month, yeah, for a healthy dog. You got to buy it when they're young and they have no pre existing conditions and just get the catastrophic. I mean you know you should be able to pay for general wellness and all of that stuff and if you just get the catastrophic injury because that's where you're going to really run into the money then it's well worth it these days that the price of things going up for sure.

Speaker 1: 14:12

Well, what else is worth it? Getting over to ahavetcom Take a look at that DIY article. You've got great information. You've got all the issues that you might run into with your dog on your website at ahavetcom and you can even sign up to work with her team over there.

Speaker 2: 14:31

I can send you the link for that too, and you can put it in the show notes so they can link right to it.

Speaker 1: 14:35

So we'll do that. Yeah, I would love to have that. And get over to Raw Dog Food and Company. Get your dog on a species appropriate diet. Is it farmer's dog cooked? It is not? No, no, but dang, don't they have great marketing. Use all our stuff. Those private equity firms are smart. Now they're not in the business of pet nutrition, but they are in the business of making money. So, anyway, get over to rawdogfoodandcompanycom. Brian will help you out. Remember Yappy Hours every Wednesday, because we love you guys and your pet's health is our business.

Speaker 1: 15:15

And what, dr Jacek Friends, don't let friends feed kibble y'all that's right, all right, we'll see you next week.

Speaker 2: 15:20

Everybody, bye-bye, bye, oh snap.

Speaker 1: 15:22

Find out how you can start your dog on the road to health and longevity. Go to rawdogfoodandcompanycom, where friends don't let friends, friends feed kibble, and where your pet's health is our business.

Speaker 2: 15:34

Just snap.