Share your veterinary nightmares---or why I hate vets! - Page 7

It is against the veterinary "code of ethics" (and the regulations of most state veterinary boards) to fail to provide "relief from pain and suffering"--regardless of the owner's ability to pay up front or in scheduled payments. This also applies to euthanasia--if this is the only option.

I have a fanstastic Vet, but even though he does do after hour emergenices, he can't always be available. Had a female bloat 6 days after delivering a litter of 10 puppies. Went to one emergency Vet...X-ray machine not working. Dog going into shock but no definate diagnosis. I wanted him to do a needle stick to releive some of the gas and he said, "but she could get an infection and geti sick" I said SHE IS DYING, LETS RELEIVE THE PRSSURE AND KEEP HER ALIVE FOR SURGERY AND WORRY ABOUT INFECTION LATER. He did use a needle and air rushed out and her stomach went down. He then said he had no staff to do the surgery, so I was off to  a different emergency  vet.

The x-ray showed the twisted stomach and she was left for surgery while I went home to bottle feed her 10 puppies. $3,000 later the next day I brought mom home. Within 4 ays seh was bleeding vaginally. Back to the Emergency and they said she needed an emergency spay ($1000), which was done. She still did not recover, and blood work showed her bleeding due to low red cell count. We did bloodwork and transfusions using her her mother, and littermates every 2 days (many hundred $ more). It took her a MONTH to die, all the while wanting her litter that she was too weak to care for (and me bottle feeding all 10 around the clock).

Necropsy  by my vet showed the trosion had damaged her spleen, which the emergency vet did not remove at the time of the bloat surgery. I asked the emergency vet about it and they said "the spleen was very bruised and nearly black, but when we untwisted it the spleen pinked up a bit so we left it in". Dogs can live without a spleen. The emergency spay was because the damaged spleen had gone haywire and was taking out ALL red cells, thus causing the bleeding. If they had removed the spleen at the time of bloat, or even checked it and removed it at the time of the unneeded emergency spay, then my beloved Liebe would have lived. It was a month or torture for Liebe, and years of saddness for me.

I have others equally bad I could share, and I have some fantastic successes done by my regular vet as well. ......       (Jackie Athon)

 JGA,so sorry. Makes my story seem like a walk in the park. How horrible for you and your girl. 

Jackie,

that is a horrible story! I am so so sorry!

Chris

Common Guys Not all Vets Make Nightmares. Where are the good stories. Maybe we need a thread for that. We have all had nightmares but vets are human too.

You only will hate the Vet until you need them. They too are human so of course they make mistakes, and some aren't out for the RIGHT reasons but most ARE. Most do the best they can to save any animal and prevet any illness.

Not only that without a vet how many times would a dog die of bloat, sure they charge but often it is a clinic. Think of all the money they have spent to LEARN how to save your dog.

Who do you call when your female needs a C-Section?

What about all the emergencies. Okay maybe some things are missed but I've never met a vet who intentionally misses something.

I think without vets we'd be in chaos. I know I would be.

Okay so a few vets make some bad decisions, but if they HONESTLY Thought in the case of the spleen and all else that it would be okay they acted in the best interest of the dog really. I too am very sorry you had to go through that and hope to god I never do, and some don't make the right decisions, but I'd hate to think we are all assuming everything is done because of a BAD VET, maybe it is an inexperienced vet or maybe based on previous experiences nothing negative has happened after a certain surgery or procedure.

I love my vet. Sure they can be busy and slow to get me in but they do ALWAYS 100% of the time. Once you have a relationship with them. And one of my best friends is a vet and she's absolutely amazing. I'd trust her with my own life if it came down to it. SO How about at least a success story thread!?

I think we shouldn't HATE vets because of a few that messed up. Dislike the ones that have harmed you or the dogs but don't generalize.

Sigh...

Shannon

Shannon, a thorough and well-trained veterinarian is a joy to find and use. I am not a fan of veterinarian bashing, but just like a lot of people who have owned dogs and moved several times over the years, I have experienced some questionable judgement and practices. Fortunately they were few and I was able to raise my hand and say "Stop it!"

We have threads periodically that promote certain veterinary practices who have demonstrated excellent service and care for our animals, and we should continue to do that. I think the purpose of this thread, if it does nothing else is to promote the idea of "Just because the doctor said it was so, doesn't make it so."

I think we all need to use good judgement, but all of us (just like the veterinarians of choice) are continually evolving through a lifetime of learning if we do this correctly.

Regards,

Bob-O

Before i was with the vets i am with now we i had a shepherd puppy and she had EPI and my mum had read a magazine at this vets place while we had the pup getting an overall check up because we didn't know what was wrong with her at the time my mym asked the vet if she had EPI and she said no and 7  weeks later she had lost nearly 3 quaters of her body weight so we decided to get a 2nd opinion and this vet we are at now said she had EPI and that we should have her put to sleep for the best for her but if we had known any ealier we would of had her put to sleep there and then not 7 weeks later.

As for me... I never let  Vets.  give the very first shot of DHLP to pups... I had a bad experience breaking an arm-and-a-leg to get the first pick of the litter about 1 month... then pups dies of Parvo after getting his 4th  DHLP shot all administered by the Vet... i'de requested that the pup be confinied to his clinic but he declined and said... "Oh, your pup is as strong as a bull... remember he already had 4 shots..." next day pup died... His defence was that the maternal anti-bodies conflicted with the DHLP shots the pup took... At  4mos, Shit.!!!  It was a case of failed immunity due to spoiled vaccine...

Hi guys,

Normally I don't respond to such threads, but this one was brought to my attention. I have worked for several vets over the past 15 years, and like Shannon, one of my very closest friends is a vet. I have seen both sides of the story. Basically I agree with what Shannon said, but would also like to  add a thought ot two.

First, I have had more horrible experiences with human drs than I have had with vets. Human drs have specialists that are readily available to refer their patients to. DVMs also have specialists, but not nearly as many, and not nearly as available. In an ideal world veterinary medicine would mirror human medicine- general practitioners would do their regular diagnosing, maintenance and treatment, refer special cases to readily available specialists, and life would be wonderful!Unfortuantely,  pet insurance is nothing like human insurance, and this is not the case. MOST people pay out of pocket for their vet care. Therefore, many people cannot afford to go to specialists even if they are available. What happens then? Then your regular DVM general practioner, who may or may not have very much experience, must attempt to treat something that he/she has ever dealt with before.

For those of you that have the grave misconception that vets are "only trying to gouge people for money". Trust me when I say, this is not the case either. It is very expensive and extremely competetive to get through a good vet school here in the  states. There are many vets that graduate from vet school with $100k worth of student loans. Remember, this is 4 yrs of under graduate school and 4 yrs of vet school. They are very lucky to make $50k as a vet right out of school. The bigger money is more in the vets that actually OWN their own practice, not so much the ones that work there.

DVMs are human, I have worked with excellent ones and not so excellent ones, just like mechanics working on my car, plumbers working on my house, and my own drs as well as smy son's pediatrician etc. 99% of the time there is no malice or ill intent- In fact, I have never seen that in my experience.

I am a firm believer in this- we must always try to educate ourselves on things in ANY aspect of our lives, and not just BLINDLY trust people because of a title. I always seek information from professionals of course, and ask lots of questions. I am extremely fortunate to have what I consider to be a superior vet, who I trust completely, but I am sure she would tell anyone that I am always asking questions and trying to learn more on my own. I do this with my car, my kids, my dogs...

Come on people, lets take some responsibilty for ourselves. It's easy to not get involved and then have someone else to blame when things turn out crappy. Monday morning quarterbacking.

I am very sorry  for anyone who has had a traumatic experience with the beloved pet. I know it is very difficult to deal with, but please give the vets a break- be fair, they are human, and the majority of the time, they are trying their very best!

Theresa

I brought a really nice GSD bitch into the emergency vet on a Sunday because I thought the dog was bloating.  They took an xray, did an exam, the emergency clinic charged me $350 for this, and then told me that the dog has pyrometria.    And "she must have an emergency spay operation that that will cost you $1600 plus more for after care" .  I explained that this is an imported bitch worth quite a bit of money who I purchased for breeding purposes, and the vet refused to consider any options other than immediate spaying....I refused the treatment, without a shred of personal medical knowledge of the condition-- I just did not believe that their diagnosis was correct.  They emergency vet told me as I carried my dog out of the clinic in my arms that she would likely die before I could get her into my regular vet the next day.  

My dog was much better already the next day, but I took her in anyway and my (wonderful) regular vet looked at the xray the emergency vet had already taken....and pointed out the obvious pockets of gas in her intestines.  The dog had a rip roaring case of flatulence from eatting too much bone (I thought she'd chew on it, not crunch the whole damn thing up and eat it!)  We ran tests anyway at my request, despite her having no symptoms of pyrometria, and she was  just dandy.  Had a super litter a few months later.

I have to say that my regular vet is a great guy, very knowledgable, gives a person a break on fees that are already reasonable occassionally, and has a great sense of humor. 

Veronica