Dog days of Autumn

It was a very, very, very long day.  I didn’t get to bed until 2am Thursday morning, and I know it was after 3am before I fell asleep.  At 6am the alarm went off, and I got out of bed to shower and get ready to drop Dante off at the vet for his surgery.  We did that, had breakfast with Nancy’s parents (who had the nerve to sleep in until 8am, thus making us wait until 9am to eat!), then we went to Old Navy, the bank, and then to the grocery store to drop off a prescription for Phoenix.  What ensued was extremely peculiar, as the pharmacist took one look at the prescription and told us that the drug had been discontinued and recalled by the manufacturer.  The drug is “Urocit-K”, and the pharmacist said that he was dismayed by this turn of events because he took Urocit himself, and didn’t know what he’d take as a replacement.  We spent about 10 minutes at the pharmacy counter as the pharmacist called up the central supply office for Vons and confirmed that Urocit was “no more”.  Bummed, we ended up just going home (after buying toilet paper and Gatorade), and we worried about what we’d be able to get for Phoenix to keep her bladder crystal problem under control now that we couldn’t get Urocit.

As soon as we got in the door, I called the vet to check on Dante, and to tell them of the Urocit problem.  We exchanged a couple of phone calls, and someone from their office (perhaps even our vet) called the pharmacy to confirm that Urocit was no longer available.  While all this was going on, both Flippy and I were on our computers, trying to figure out why Urocit was recalled, and why we weren’t informed of the problem prior to this.  We looked everywhere online, including the Urocit-K website, and there wasn’t one mention of the drug not being available.  It was available at Drugstore.com, at CVS, and even at Walgreens.com, which gave me the idea to pick up the phone and call Walgreens to ask about the item.  They knew nothing of a recall.  They had the product in stock.

So… I called the vet’s office back, again, and told them to ignore my previous calls about Urocit because it’s available at Walgreens.  So what on earth was going on at the Vons pharmacy?!  Is it Urocit-K Hazing Week or something?  They put us into a panic, had the vet’s office scrambling, and eventually lost out on a prescription that included half a year’s worth of refills.  I’ve never had an experience like it before.

Dante, by the way, is doing great.  He’s got quite a few stitches in his ear, and his tooth was ground down to a flat surface (it had broken on the diagonal), and it has a shiny cap on it.  He was given an injection of pain meds into the ear itself, and that’s supposed to last for 20 hours, and then in the morning we’ll start him on Rimadyl.  I hope we don’t have any problems with him scratching at his ear, or he’ll have to wear an e-collar and that’s just a disaster waiting to happen (picture a dog with an 18” wide e-collar trying to fit through a 14” wide doggie door).  We’ll get the pathology report on the ear growth back in a week, and then he has stitches removed in 10 days.  Total cost, including pre-surgery lab work was about $780.

October 9 through 15 is National Veterinary Technician Appreciation Week.  I hope chocolates will be appropriate.  Don’t forget to appreciate your vet techs!

My father sent me this file, and it’s hilarious, especially if you’re a lover of parrots:  pet shop.  If it won’t load in your browser window, right-click on it and select “save target as” to save it to your computer.

I am so incredibly tired.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/06 at 10:17 PM

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  1. Intriguingly, the Urocit mystery continues.  I’ve had hits to my blog today for the search term “Urocit recalled” from Georgia, Kentucky, and California.  Just what is going on with Urocit?!  If you’ve arrived here because your local pharmacy has told you Urocit was recalled, you might want to check the Walgreens.com site to see if they still have it listed.  Assuming they do, the Urocit thing just seems to be an odd rumour or mix-up.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann (aka Mudpuppy)  on  10/10  at  11:09 PM
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