Emancipet serves over 260,000 client visits annually across the communities we serve. Each visit is a pet family working to give their pets a happy, healthy, and long life. One of those visits was from Chuck and their human, Christiana.

Chuck, named after Lana Del Ray’s nickname for her sister, was a stray until Christiana found him at 6 months old. Since then, he has been living the life of a lap cat and a registered Emotional Support Animal for Christiana.

One Friday night this past November, Christiana came home to find that some of her sewing thread was strewn across the floor. By Sunday, Christiana’s full-service veterinarian found a thread wrapped around Chuck’s tongue and down his esophagus. In order to remove the thread, Chuck would require surgery. Christiana was quoted over $2,000, something that just wasn’t feasible. She researched more affordable options and in that search, found Emancipet’s Austin Dental and Surgical Center.

Christiana credits the Emancipet team for all of their hard work in helping get Chuck into the surgery room quickly. Everything from our Resource Center reaching out to her primary veterinarian to ensure that Chuck’s documents got to our clinic, to scheduling his surgery within the hour of her phone call.

The vet team at Emancipet was so incredible and they gave me my quote right away,” Christiana said. “They took really great care of me and Chuck throughout the whole process. They even reached out a week later to make sure that everything was going well with Chuck. I knew that they genuinely cared about the well being of my cat.

In surgery, the team was able to discover that the thread had moved to his colon and safely remove it. After a few recovery days, Christiana noticed some irregular bowels that made her nervous. She reached out to the Emancipet and was able to speak directly to the veterinarian, who put her mind at ease by sharing that this was a normal part of recovery.

Christiana now looks back at what originally felt like moments of fear, and now are replaced with feelings of support from the Emancipet team.

I’m just so incredibly grateful for everything that you all do and the vet team for everything,” she shares. “I feel so fortunate for the Emancipet team and the care and consideration that they put in his recovery plan. Everyone I ever interacted with has given me a really really incredible experience. I can just tell that they genuinely care about my cat’s well-being and how I felt too.

Whether you’re looking for major surgery like Chuck or are looking for dental care, you can find it at the Austin Dental and Surgical Center.

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