::A Geek in Korea::

On Sunday, I went with my dog to purchase some special dog food. Since Yoshi has a no-protein diet to prevent allergies, we must buy all of our dog food at pet stores that carry specialty food. This isn’t a major annoyance, because we have a local veterinary hospital not far from the park we usually walk at. I was concerned that Yoshi had developed an ear condition called "otitis", which is basically an infection in his ear canal. It’s common in his breed. I don’t know the signs of the illness, but I wanted the vet to check to make sure he had no problems.

I went to Macro 24 hour hospital in Weolpyeong-dong, which is next to the second E-Mart location in Daejeon. I decided to purchase the food, and while I was there, I asked Dr. Oh to check my dog’s ears. He quickly took Yoshi back to his desk. He then checked his ears and claimed that he did indeed have otitis. According to the doctor, it was "severe" in his right ear, and he recommended medication over the course of five visits two days apart. I would need to give him medication. as well as shots that would be administered during his subsequent checks at the hospital. This sounded fairly serious.

Something rubbed me entirely the wrong way about the procedure. The usual vet we go to is very good. We only went to Macro because I wanted to pick the food up on a walk. This was the first time I had gone to this hospital alone with my dog, and I was more interested in buying food that his health, since he seemed completely fine. Another thing that seemed strange was the fact that the vet never wiped the table surfaces between examinations, something my other vet was religious about doing. Another warning sign was the fact that the dog was never weighed before he gave me the dosages of his medicine. I’m not a vet, but even I know that you can’t give a little dog the same amount of medicine as a big one.

I was skeptical about his diagnosis, so I talked to my wife about the trip when I returned home with the medicine. When we went to administer his first feeding of medicine, we thought something was very strange. Yoshi had gotten treated for his skin condition in the past. Our previous doctor used antibiotics and steroids, but gave us a strict warning about the dosage due to the strength of the medicine. That was for a full body itch. This was only for his ears, but what we were given at Macro hospital was close to five or six times larger, if not more. The difference in dosage was alarming, and we both thought it was strange. We went back for his check up and got more medicine to cure his ear inflammation.

We fed Yoshi his new food, then we gave him medicine our usual way. We mix his medicine with plain yogurt. Yoshi ate all his medicine and was fine when we put him in the cage at night. When I woke up in the morning, I went in to let him out. He had made a mess in his cage. This was fine, except that instead of simply going to the bathroom, he had vomited thick yellow foam. The last time he had done this, we ran to our usual vet in a panic. We fed Yoshi breakfast, but he vomited repeatedly. Something was wrong.

We called our old vet, and he confirmed out suspicion. Thick yellow foam means that Yoshi’s stomach had been agitated by the incredibly strong medicine. Our old vet recommended we bring in Yoshi for observation. Sick or weakened dogs often die when given too much skin allergy medicine due to its potency.

Oh, hell no.

We packed Yoshi in his traveling bag and got in a taxi we had tissues prepared in case he decided to vomit in the cab. Thankfully, he held down whatever was in his stomach until we arrived at our old vet. He examined Yoshi’s eats with a fiber optic camera. He was completely free of any skin condition. Whatever Doctor Oh at Macro 24 hour hospital had been telling us about his ears being severely inflamed was a complete lie. We wasted 30,000 won on medicine that could have severely injured our dog out of greed from a crooked vet. The odd thing was, Macro 24 hour hospital came highly recommended by someone we knew that took his dogs there exclusively. We only went there due to its location near our house, but no longer. We now have a regular family vet.

Our "Good" vet works at Snoopy Clinic, which is near SaveZone department store, in Dunsan-dong. He’s the most honest, helpful vet we’ve found, and he speaks decent English. He treats dogs very well and is extremely knowledgeable. For new dog owners or foreigners, I’d highly recommend him. The trimming service is also the best we’ve found, and they do not use drugs or recommend sedation to get a decent cut. He doesn’t try to sell snake oil to people looking to take care of their pets, and is respectful of people’s desires while looking out for the welfare of the animals he services.