This OD’s Patient Brought a Surprise Visitor for Emergency Treatment

A patient of mine comes in at closing time, 4 p.m. on Saturday. The lights are off and I’m literally walking out the door. She’s holding an old hairy dog and says his eye is red. Would I write an antibiotic Rx for him? I told her I don’t treat dogs. She said I could write the Rx for her and she would give it to the dog. I told her no and asked how long the dog had the red eye. She told me one week. I looked at his eye. It was red and had dried mucus discharge around the area. I asked her why she didn’t take him to the veterinarian and she told me that the vet would charge a lot more for an office visit than me. I told her to forget it — and told her to take him to the vet. Michael Silverman, OD, Eagle Eyecare, Coral Springs, FL