Dion Osborne, DVM

Dr. Osborne had been the vet for my mother's dog for a number of years (5 or more).  My mother is 86 years old , lives by herself, and is hardly able to walk.  It was very difficult for her to get her Boykin spaniel to Dr. Osborne's office for years, but she did it as long as she could, which was until March 2013.  Her dog is now 13 or 14 years old and suffering from arthritis in his hips.  
Her dog now is not able to get up by himself, and she made the very difficult decision to have him put down.  I live three hours away from my mother, so I called Dr. Osborne's office and asked them if Dr. Osborne could possibly make a house call to put the dog down.  Inasmuch as it was the afternoon of New Year's Eve, Dr. Osborne's office said, no he couldn't do it that day or the next day but that if we called back today (Jan. 2, 2014), Dr. Osborne would find a time in his schedule to make a house call and travel approximately 6 blocks to my mother's house and would put the dog down. 
 I also asked if Dr. Osborne would be willing to prescribe some type of pain medication to get the dog through the next two days until he could get there to perform the euthanasia.  The receptionist said, no, not unless Mama could bring the dog in.  She could not seem to understand or was unwilling to accept that my mother was completely incapable of bringing the dog in.  I explained again.  She expressed no compassion for the dog and offered no alternative.  We agreed my mother or I would call today to see what time Dr. Osborne could work it into his schedule to make the house call.
This morning when my grieving mother called to see what time Dr. Osborne could come over, she was told that Dr. Osborne could not work the promised house call into his busy surgical schedule today.  She was given the telephone number of a mobile vet, whose base of operations is at least 30 miles away.  My mother has  now called this complete stranger to come and euthanize her dog.  And the complete stranger vet is coming today.  This could have been done two days and a lot of suffering ago.