Cocoa at Electric City Animal Clinic
Bad vet experience. Those are three words that make me cringe. This is going to be a long one, dear readers. Then I want you to share any bad vet experiences you've had with your cats.
Cocoa is pictured here at the clinic who is trying to help him.
I really don't know where to begin this story, so I'll start WAY back in the last century. Here's the link to that story. Sadly, it was the same vet who did this to my cats who I was forced to see on Monday when I took Cocoa in. I didn't know my regular vet was out sick.
Let me describe what's going on with my beautiful boy. He won't eat a bite unless it's fed to him mixed with lots of water and through a syringe. He practically gags at the sight of a plate of food. This has been going on for a week now. In case you hadn't read an earlier article about him, he has no claws and only one tooth in his head.
Did I mention I had a wreck on the way to the vet Monday? This just keeps getting worse and worse. I not only wrecked my car, but I arrived at the vet only to find my vet out with an attack of appendicitis. The practice owner saw my Cocoa.
I explained the symptoms and double checked as this vet looked inside Cocoa's mouth. Everything looked fine on that end. This vet then suggested I "wait several days and make Cocoa get really hungry." Then he repeated "there's nothing wrong with him," followed by "no charge for today".
I really need to stop writing for a moment and break something. Do any of you know how frustrating it is to know something is very wrong with your cat and no one wants to believe you?
On Tuesday I drove my battered body in my battered car to my hometown. There's a clinic called Electric City Animal Clinic. I think I'm going to transfer my cats over to them as they open at 7a.m.
I had to drop my daughter off at her grandmother's nearby and just stopped in to see if the vet had time to see my big boy. They worked him in. The first thing the assistant noticed was severe upper respiratory congestion. Then she took his temperature (no fever) and listened to his chest. The vet examined my monster boy (he weighs almost 14 lbs.) and told me he believes Cocoa won't eat because he's too congested to smell his food.
Now for another shocker: Cocoa is a senior cat. Didn't see that one coming. He's had a lot of years to practice that loving.
His new vet prescribed antibiotic liquid, a steroid nose drop and an IV to replace some of the fluids he'd lost. Cocoa has to go for a recheck on Monday and it was suggested that if he doesn't improve quickly blood work needs to be done.
Sure, I had a bill for this service. But at least I got service. NOT some vet who didn't think my kitty was worth more than a few minutes of his time.
I watched the faces of some of the other clients at the first vet. They looked grief-stricken for lack of a better word. Like I said, the other vet in the practice is GREAT. Too bad the owner hasn't learned a thing or two from him.
I also spoke with some of the clients where Cocoa's condition was finally taken more seriously. They offered only praise for this clinic. Word of mouth goes a long way in my neck of the woods.
It's also the best method in my area to fight bad vets. Reporting them to veterinary associations does little good. Most of these are older vets who refuse to change with the times. Merchant Circle and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) are more effective.
I do have a chip-in here for Cocoa. I don't know what kind of treatment or tests he'll be needing in the future. I plan to do the best I can for him.
I just hope no one finds out it's "bring your cat to work day." Yes, he's sitting in his duffel bag carrier by my work station.
As I write this, Cocoa watches me from his carrier. He's refusing the water and the can of food I placed in there for him. It's entirely possible my boss will walk in on me cradling and syringe feeding a cat. Now THAT would be a story to tell his children.
I hope I NEVER have to go through anything like this again. It's agonizing! And the sad thing is this first vet has a very steady clientele because he's been practicing for about 50 years now. People brag on how great he is! I wonder if he prefers some pets and shoo's off the rest as insignificant?
Have any of you had a bad vet experience? What happened and what did you do about it? There are days like Monday when I don't see how I've lived 50 years without being arrested.
Elisa
Yes my first vet ordered tests for my cat without informing me . Did not diagnose my cat based on the test results The test results indicated Chronic Kidney Disease.I did my own research concerning the test results. The vet also wanted to do other tests to make more money as she thought I was ignorant and could exploit me.
Sad to hear but well done in spotting it and resisting. Thanks for commenting.
I’ve waited more than a week to clear my head and seriously weigh whether to post this. Complaining or reviewing on Yelp or Google always seems ineffective but this needed to be said (even if it’s for my own peace of mind) and I don’t know if I’ve turned to the correct forum; I hope I have.
For a little more than three years, Heartland Animal Hospital in Lake Placid, Florida, was the health care provider for our rescued cat. The assistants were always wonderful. The main doctor seems to be quite qualified but she is totally lacking in personality. The new doctor partner has some personality but we felt that she was less qualified. (Two other patients we referred feel the same way.) That new doctor partner gave our cat a few weeks or maybe a couple months to live—that was more than nine months ago. Regardless of monitoring, our cat remained chipper and content and quite normally active even though she had a myriad of health problems including total deafness and failing kidneys all of which originated long before she adopted us.
We knew she was nearing the end because of the kidney problems which usually plague cats. One day she started hiding and she was very lethargic. When that went on for three or four days, we took her to the vet but again nothing was diagnosed other than she had so many problems that nothing concrete could be decided upon. Oddly, we were told our cat was blind because she wouldn’t blink when they poked a finger at each eye. An hour before, she had clearly seen me enter a room, stood and came across the room to me. When we got home, she moved—sometimes even running—around the house and the furniture with clear sightedness just as always. In several places, furniture and objects had been rearranged for redecorating so we knew she could see and she wasn’t navigating by rote.
The lethargy subsided a bit but she wasn’t back up to snuff. Then, within a few days, she started ducking every time we went to pet her. This was odd because she was always abnormally affectionate. We phoned the vet and asked if cats get headaches. We were told that they had never heard of such a thing.
Another day or so later, while we administered her daily subcutaneous fluid (for her kidneys), she reacted quite normally, looking at us, meowing. Absolutely normal. I put her down on the floor and she suddenly got hesitant, at first slipping in her gait, and then she started bumping into everything. She had literally gone blind in a split second with her eyes wildly dilated. It was heartbreaking to watch her move her head around trying desperately to see and meowing wildly. As a result, she understandably plunged into complete panic. I left her at home in the care of my wife and rushed to the vet but was told to monitor her until the next day. Again, they cited that she had health problems. After returning home, the cat became much, much worse. Her pupils were now going from fully dilated to normal and back and forth. We were fearing some sort of stroke and thought that this was the end. I phoned the vet but the telephone gatekeeper wouldn’t allow an immediate appointment for what would obviously be euthanasia. Every staff member there knew our cat and would have known that whatever was happening was dire to illicit such reaction in me or my wife. We had never been demanding. Instead, rather huffily the telephone gatekeeper would only agree to move the next afternoon’s scheduled appointment up half an hour no matter how I explained that the poor cat was going out of her mind with fear. Still, I was told they had no time to see her. How inhumane is that? At this point, I was in as much panic as our cat. I asked if I should take her to the emergency vet hospital quite a distance away. “If that’s what you think you have to do,” was the dismissive reply.
I had to drive two hours to that nearest emergency veterinary hospital with the poor cat in total distress. That emergency hospital told me our cat’s blood pressure was so extremely and abnormally high, it was why she had been ducking her head—because her head was throbbing. They said that hypertension was common in severe kidney failure but it should have been checked all along. Wasn’t our vet checking our cat’s blood pressure? Until that moment no one had ever taken the cat’s blood pressure (rarely was anything done in the same room we were in)—or, if they had taken blood pressure, it was never mentioned to us. Our cat had gone suddenly blind because the extraordinarily high blood pressure burst the blood vessels in her eyes. With no medical records on file, they spent the next few hours running tests to determine how to possibly help her. Ultimately, with her other ailments, such a large dosage of blood pressure medication would be fatal to other failing organs. Oh, and our vet’s assessment that our cat was possibly twelve years old was off by at least three and as many as five years. She was most probably fifteen and quite possibly older.
The end for any much-loved pet has to be accepted but it was absolutely inexcusable for our original vet to allow or expect any animal to suffer for the convenience of appointment schedules. That was just plain heartless and it is unforgivable. As one assistant explained more than a year ago, “Cats get treated as disposable [in the veterinary world].”
The next day, when I called our original vet to cancel the scheduled appointment, I informed them of our cat’s death. When I gave them the explanation that the sudden blindness and panic was due to fatally high blood pressure, the phone line suddenly went silent. It was that sort of silence when you know the other party realizes they screwed up. I was too exhausted to raise my voice let alone argue. My anger wasn’t part of my grief; it was due to the callousness my pet had been shown. Rehashing it here has been heartbreaking but I will qualify my stance with this: My wife was a medical assistant for her entire career. If a patient called or showed up with dire symptoms, that patient was admitted immediately regardless of the routine appointment schedule. On my way to becoming a successful writer, I spent ten years as a lifeguard. I knew full-well about emergency treatment and when I had to administer it. In order words, we were both hands-on in healthcare. Neither of us would have allowed any human to have been treated thusly let alone an elderly animal.
Our last memories of our beloved pet was of her thrashing around in utter terror for hours not understanding what was going on. If our vet had had her way, such suffering would have even been extended for an entire day. We lived ten minutes from our vet and had our cat been seen immediately, her misery could have been cut short by all those hours. She deserved that courtesy and that caring and that dignity. It is what should have been paramount to everyone involved regardless of whose pet it was and anyone who might make an excuse to the contrary shouldn’t be in any branch of medicine.
As a professional writer, I know how to gather evidence and how to state it clearly. All of this is absolutely true exactly as it happened. There has been nothing left out or spun for my benefit. We knew there couldn’t be miracles but we had put faith in our pet being shown compassion and humaneness. She didn’t receive that until we drove her two hours away. At least there they allowed us to cradle her and calm her so she knew we were with her when she went to sleep.
There are no excuses or apologies which our vet can ever extend. That would just be insulting. Nothing exonerates such a lack of caring. Prospective patients might bear this experience in mind before considering Heartland Animal Hospital.
Thanks John. I have read your comment in its entirety. It is a hard read. I’d like to turn your comment into an article for this website if you’d agree. Many thanks again for sharing your experience and thoughts. I am sorry that all three of you had to go through it.
It is time to vent about the Dowagiac Animal Hospital,P.C.
I have taken Garfield there 3 times since i moved to the area, they have terrified my cat . I was told that they netted him just to give him shots,my cat is four years old going on five,he has been to the vet every year to get his shots and has never acted like he acts at this vet , i think they have mistreated him so much that he remembers what they did to him. then after they terrified my cat ,they tell me they cannot see him anymore he is just to bad. Garfied has never had a reaction to the vet like he does there. I think the Dowagiac vet miss treats the animals and would highly recomend that if you are taking your animals there, to find another vet. I have never had a vet not want you to go with animal to the exan room, I am so sorry that i took my cat to these people.
Elizabeth Hagedorn
Thanks Elizabeth. Interesting. I had to delete the other Facebook replies and likes etc as the comment looked chaotic. I would ask if your cat needs regular vaccination boosters. I think you’ll find he does not.