The worms crawl in...

The VBB Mailbag has been filling up again with tales of woe from our CBB (colleagues behaving badly...)

Here's one from the harried hands of Dr. CM:

Straight out of school, I started working for Banfield (don’t get me started).  In case you don’t know anything about this amoeba-like monstrosity, Banfield is a corporate run chain of hospitals located inside PetSmart stores.  This creates a weird dynamic between the PetSmart management and the hospital, as clients fail to understand that the two are independent of each other and routinely take their Banfield complaints to PetSmart management.  On the other hand, managers may come to us when faced with odd complaints themselves, as in this one instance.

PetSmart Manager: “Dr. can you talk to this guy?  He is on his way in, and he is on a rampage!  He is claiming the dog food we sold him gave his dog worms.”

Me:  “Sure, send him over when he gets here.”

Guy shows up and I hear him loudly discussing the issue with two of the PS managers.  In about 5 minutes, the original manager heads over to us with a baggy in her hand, angry guy trailing behind her.

She hands me the bag..

PS Manager:  “Here is the worm that Mr. Biofail found in his dog’s stool today.”

Me (taking a quick peek at the “worm”):  “Sir, I can absolutely guarantee that your dog did not get this worm from his food.  In fact, this worm did not come from your dog.”

Mr. Biofail:  “Yes, it did.  It was right there on his poop this morning.”

Me:  “I understand that, but there is NO WAY that this ALIVE, WIGGLING CATERPILLAR came from your dog.  It may have fallen from a tree onto the poop, or was already on the ground and crawled onto…”

Mr. Biofail (voice raised):  “This worm came from the dog food I bought here and I want a refund!!!”

Me:  “Well, you can take that up with PetSmart, but your dog did not eat this ALIVE worm from the food, have it travel all the through his GI tract, and then poop it out STILL ALIVE.  That is not possible.  So I will never say that the food you bought here gave your dog worms.”

Mr. Biofail proceeded to drive to another store with his happily wiggling caterpillar and try the same stunt.  Thankfully, the manager had alerted other local stores…..