Looking for advice & thoughts on my veterinary surgery - Neglect

vicx

undaunted wrote: »

Once again I'm sorry to read of your loss, pain & worries. If I recall your last post correctly however you had happily used this vet for many years, now apparently continuing to do so despite now seemingly blaming him for not taking more teeth out 7 years ago?

Without wishing to sound harsh I therefore have to ask why do you therefore automatically assume the emergency vet to be right & your trusted vet wrong? Could it be that your feelings over the loss of your boy are biasing your opinions?

As has already been said above if you wish to make allegations of negligence & inappropriate treatments you need independant evidence to support that or you will be unlikely to get anywhere with your complaint.

Are you sure that trachea collapse is untreatable? I think you'll find that medication assists many dogs & surgery is possible for those that didn't. Any innacurate statements could also cause your complaints to be taken "less seriously" / attributed to grief I suspect.

Perhaps a call to the Blue Cross pet bereavement service may help you think & talk through your feelings & the merits of pursuing such a complaint?

There are a number of reasons I continued to use this veterinary surgery after he removed my dogs teeth. It is the only vet in the town I lived in (I since moved but it is still very close), he knew my dogs medical history having been registered at that vet since he was a puppy and removing his teeth. If my dog needed another operation I would have registered him under another vet but he was only going to the vet for medication so I never changed vets.

Last monday when I took my dog to the vet at 4pm, he should have been put to sleep but the vet never advised us that this was best. Instead she gave us medication and prolonged his suffering. My poor boy was dying and had to be rushed through to the emergency surgery 30 miles away.

After my dog was put to sleep, the vet told us that she will be sending the reports to my veterinary surgery and that we should be refunded for the medication that was prescribed at 4pm.

I am going to write a letter to the surgery to make a complaint. I feel I should be reimbursed the consulation & medication fee's as well as the £100 consulation fee which is cost at the emergency vet.


To answer your question about trachea collapse. We were told at the emergency surgery that this is untreatable. I didn't ask questions as I was too upset so couldn't even talk never mind take in what was being said.

I have done a lot of research on this condition and surgery can be done to correct this problem, however, I think the vet was telling me that with his age (14 years and 9 months) and advanced stage of this condition that it is not treatable. He would not have survived the anesthetic. He was really suffering with a constant loud choking cough and lack of oxygen. I really can't understand how the vet didn't tell us that it was the end of the road for him and advise us that it would be best to put him to sleep.

undaunted

What I'm trying to say to you though is that your vet may decide to dispute the emergency vets findings and stand by his/ her earlier diagnosis. Unless you had a post mortem by an idependant party you may then struggle to get anywhere with a complaint (especially if there is also any dispute raised about whether he could have survived an operation or not)

If there are sound grounds for complaint then by all means I would complain but I just hope you do not end up adding to your current distress fruitlessly