It’s hard being a pet parent in China. If you live in a “rural” area (meaning anything less than 2,000,000 people), you most likely do not live near a vet. When Vash was only a few months old she ate an entire bottle of gum. This was in the middle of the night and the only vet was 2 hours away by bus. I ended up calling our family vet back in Florida, but the diagnosis wasn’t good. How she survived that night is a mystery to me even to this day.
Living in Changsha, though, we thought things would be better. We actually only live a couple of blocks from “pet shop row,” which has pet shops, pet supply shops, and a couple of vets. While I do buy a lot of supplies there, the vet offices do not engender trust. They are dirty and when I have talked to the vets, they just seemed…iffy. When getting a quote for getting Vash spayed they said “oh, it’s only 1200 RMB, unless you want her to have pain medication, that’s extra. Also, if you want her to sleep during the operation, that’s extra. And if you want post-surgery medicine, that’s extra.” I mean, if I didn’t want to pay the extra’s would they seriously do internal surgery on her without putting her under? So, we just put off getting her spayed much longer than we should have.
I never had a non-spayed/un-neutered dog or cat in my life. So when Vash would go through her heat, it kind of freaked me out. She was extremely moody and would have severe nesting phases where she would growl at us if we got too close. We realized that the physical and emotional strain on her was too much and we had to find a vet. My friend Wanli was kind enough to do a thorough internet search to find the best vet in Changsha. And, boy, did she come through for me..err…I mean Vash.
Wanli did a thorough internet search to find the “best” vet in Changsha. The office with overwhelming results was Dr. Ao ShuMing at the office “wei mei chong wu yi yuan.” In English it’s called “Will Mix.” The address is 长沙维美宠物医院地址：曙光路医院：雨花区曙光中路曙光大邸小区169号门面（金叶大酒店对面长沙市中级人民法院旁) 敖曙明医生. It is near Chengnan East Road and Shaoshan North, very close to the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court.
Phone Number: 0731-89782614
The Doctor was very kind, he and the staff were very professional, and the office (event the back rooms) were clean and warm. For the spaying, a week stay, post-operation care and medicine, and a ‘cone of shame’ for her to wear after bringing her home came to 1300 RMB (and they gave us an itemized receipt). She had to stay at the office for a week for post-operative care, but they were happy to have us stop by and see her every other day.
 |
| On the way to the vet, moose in tow |
 |
| Darcy, enjoying being a single child for a week. She was quick to take over Vash’s toys and bed. |
 |
| Visiting Vash at the Vet Office |
 |
| Battle Scars |
 |
| Back home safe and sound. |
We have had Vash back home for a few days now. She had to wear her cone of shame for two days and she was still a little too sore to jump up on our bed, but now the cone is off and she she is playing and fighting like normal. I’m really glad to have finally found a trustworthy vet here in Changhsa and will go there in the future (Darcy’s up next).