In October of 2024 my beloved little Elkie "AKA wiggle butt" came down with an auto immune disease where her blood cells were attacking themselves. It landed her an overnight stay at an emergency clinic having a blood transfusion. When I picked her up at 8:00 a.m. they told me that she had had a reaction to the transfusion and would most likely have to have another one, but I would have to take her to Iowa State where they could separate the blood that she needed without giving her the rest of the blood. I was terrified after paying a few thousand dollars right there that I would run out of money before I could save her. I drove her straight from the emergency clinic to see Dr. Pothast. She immediately examined her closely and started her on the appropriate meds to help her body stop the attack that was going on. The thing I appreciated so much was that Dr. Pothast knew Elkie well enough to know that she is an extreme introvert and it would be stressful for her to stay at the clinic so she had me take her home because she trusted that I would watch her like a hawk and have her back in in a flash if I felt something was wrong.
We set it up that I would take her in every morning first thing to have her examined and monitor her slow recovery. With Dr. Pothast's very close daily monitoring the attack stopped and Elkie was able to slowly rebuild her blood cells and was able to climb back without another transfusion. The happiest day was when Dr. Pothast walked into the exam room took one look at Elkie with her great big wide "stranger danger" eyes, she smiled and said, "there's the Elkie we know!" It did my heart good to know that she knew my little girl well enough to not be offended by Elkie's terrified look even after all the close monitoring she had done with her, but to be happy to see that she was back to herself!
Without saying a word Dr. Pothast set a very affordable fee for me to be able to afford to bring Elkie in every day to be monitored. What I appreciate so much about her is that I knew she heard every word I told her and took it into great consideration. Another thing that we greatly appreciated is Dr. Pothast would take Elkie's vitals and examine her every morning and then my mom and I would take her vitals every evening, but we were in unfamiliar waters that we called the emergency line talked to Russ every evening. He would talk to us and reassure us if he knew her vitals were in a range that was good but at any point if he wasn't sure he would reach out to the vet on call and find the answers and get back with us. We so appreciated his patience and his willingness to ease our minds every evening. Russ and Dr. Pothast together make an extraordinary team that is above and beyond anywhere else that we have ever gone. Elkie's story is only one testimonial of too many to count that Dr. Pothast has played a huge role in saving their lives!
Ginny Coolman