Vet Stress Top five emergency vet experiences (only in South Beach and NYC)

May 21st, 2008  

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Wow, fun stories. Life is better than any television show. Since you got your degree from a Cracker Jack box, did you also wear it around as a temporary tatoo? Just kidding :0).

Jason May 21st, 2008 01:05:00 PM

OMG, all are so abusive and sick, I can only imagine keeping law inforcement's phone number handy in bold print.

Share an abusive story? I'm so utterly sad when I think about it, I don't even think I can form rational sentences. This is verbal abuse reversed. A client accepting without provocation or retaliation, cruel verbal abuse from not one, but two veterinarian professionals at the most unexpected and weakest moment in my life. My significant other was present and reduced to almost a child in tears. I was so tired, overwrought, ---and in retrospect, thankfully so, otherwise surely I'd be in a jail cell.

Can you imagine belittling a client, because her pet dog is still alive in a cage after an entire week, all the time lying and deceiving, and committing fraud, and finally forced to admit the dog is NOT going to get better.

Can you imagine screaming at a client that it is "ALL YOUR FAULT" , when you knowingly broke the AVMA ethics and NH state laws by inhumanely and cruelly administered potassium chloride ONLY, to the pet she has loved for 11 1/2 years and the client is asking what is wrong and to stop---and you say IT IS TOO LATE!


And the client is in shock, dumbfounded, ready to faint or vomit or both?

I am sickened over the above experiences that you have been subjected to Drs. Khuly & Bessler. I hope that your profession is sickened by mine---tomorrow is Pocket's birthday, and try as I do, I still cannot forget.

Barbara A. Albright/New Hampshire May 21st, 2008 07:04:00 PM

There are many sick and twisted people out there. Some are clients, and some are vets. The difference is while the client can choose the vet, the vet can't always choose the client. Though no doubt they certainly wish they could and perhaps do in some circumstances.
Unfortunately you don't usually know you have a shitty vet until you have lost, or almost lost a pet to one. Where as a shitty client is usually pretty obvious from the first visit...

Humans are complex and sometimes very damaged....it is something that could use some improvement, but not so easy.

LorriM May 22nd, 2008 12:07:00 AM

Some time ago I ran across a facebook group dedicated to such things:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5497526500

Can be really funny at times :-)

Xslf May 22nd, 2008 03:43:00 PM

Maybe not quite on topic, I do have a "troubling" story to tell.

A nameless veterinarian I know had a difficult client she believed was a bit mentally unbalanced. The exact circumstances escape me, but I remember this vet. treating the woman's seriously-ill cat, only to have the woman accuse the vet. of wrongdoing, and taking the animal to another vet. for a second opinion. When that veterinarian agreed with the first vet's diagnosis and treatment plan, the woman was more conciliatory. She eventually brought the cat back to the first veterinarian for euthanasia, once the prognosis was grim.

The woman took the cat's body home, and then brought it back to the clinic to be disposed of. At around the same time, another case arrived that required the amputation of a cat's leg. This vet. hadn't done an feline limb amputation (either ever, or outside veterinary school), and so decided to "practice" on the recently deceased cat's body. After all, the cat was left there for disposal. What's the real harm?

So, out came the text book and the dead cat's body. The amputation lesson was a success, as was the actual amputation on the living patient.

Horrifically, the dead cat's owner returned to the clinic, telling the staff she'd changed her mind, and now wanted her cat's body back. The young vet. panicked. How would the vet. explain the condition of the cat's remains? Eventually the decision was made to tape the cat up, and cover it in several layers of plastic, making it very difficult to unwrap.

Having been told the story, I couldn't resist playing a little prank. I called the vet's home number, and left a message pretending to be a representative of the local veterinary licensing board. "A complaint has been made concerning a cat you euthanized, and then allegedly mutilated. We take these kinds of complaints very seriously, and have set up a hearing..." I eventually let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, and confessed the joke at the end of my message. The vet. later called me to admit the sheer panick my message had caused, initially. (Who knew I was such a good actor?)

In any event, a lesson was learned. Don't take liberties with patients' pets, even when deceased. You just never know. And especially don't take liberties with the bodies of pets owned by people you believe are a tad flaky. They're the ones most likely to trip you up.

Thankfully, though, nothing came of the incident. Either the woman didn't look, or she didn't care that one of her deceased cat's legs was no longer attached. That vet. dodged a bullet, that's for sure. It could've easily ended rather ugly.

Withheld, to protect the innocent May 26th, 2008 11:46:00 PM

I have one from either side. While working in veterinary clinic, a regular client (a known pain in the you-know-what...) brought his ever thinning cat in for blood work. We were pretty sure based on description alone over the phone that we were dealing with diabetes (one of the latest of epidemics) and the bloodwork confirmed it. We entered the room, the vet and myself, to give the client the news. Before ever having a chance to explain what this meant for fluffy the devil cat (who tried to kill me while taking a blood sample) the man literally explodes.

"What do you mean, diabetes? He can't have diabetes? I've never fed him sugar in his life!"

So, of course, we try to explain that any type of carbohydrate is converted into blood sugar, yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda, upon which he accuses us of injecting his cat with sucrose instead of vaccines last year, and we must have caused her diabetes in a giant conspiracy to cause his cat pain and his wallet hard times. He exclaims he's going to sue our asses off, and stomps out the door, without paying the bill of course.

And then of course from the other side of the counter.

Our hypothyroid, epileptic, dysplastic, AIHA dog suddenly turns yellow one day at the age of about 2 1/2 or 3 years old. He's on all kinds of medication for his epilepsy (he's a clusterer) and we rush him to our local country vet (new vet for us). At the time, he's eating... well, let's just say food left over from when I worked at the last veterinary clinic.

His liver has almost completely shut down. They give him some sub-Q fluids, and explain to us that he's got a week, maybe a few, to live, the medications are killing him. We can't reduce his medications, we've tried before and he almost immediately ends up requiring IV valium to break his seizures and then a re-increase in meds. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Her recommendation is, as a last ditch effort, to try him on a "more natural diet" (no explanation or further advice given) and to reduce his medication as slowly as possible. She says some people have seen some reduction in seizure activity this way.

This of course, makes no sense to me, he's completely freakin yellow, and we've essentially been told he may have only a week or two to live. I said let's start drastically reducing what's killing him (the meds) and take our chances (what have we got to lose??)

Went home, jumped online, did some poking around, went to the bookstore, bought about a dozen books, started making him a raw diet that day. Cut his medication by 25% and started filling him full of several herbal remedies. Milk Thistle, Valerian, Skullcap, Chamomile, Rescue Remedy, was giving him oatmeal as a cooling food according to traditional Chinese medicine (I mean, when you've got a diagnosis of death, what do you have to lose, right?).

About five days later, he had a couple focal seizures, nothing big, cut another 25% of his medications. Added a few more herbs, started adding montmorillonite clay. He was no longer yellow. The vets hadn't phoned to see how he was, so I figured they weren't interested.

A week later, we cut another 25% of his meds, and a week later, he was med free. The only thing he remained on was his soloxine for his thyroid.

About three weeks later, the vet finally called. I think she was calling to find out if she could close his file. I asked if we could bring him in for bloodwork. She stammered yes, and we made an appointment for the next day.

He pranced in there like the king of the universe, looking like himself for the first time in I don't know how long, finally not trying to eat everything in sight, he had lost about seven pounds (phenobarb makes them eat EVERYTHING and makes them insatiable) and feelin great.

We ran his blood work, and while his liver values were still out of whack, they were barely outside of normal range, as opposed to his previously off the chart values.

Then I busted out the news. I had stopped all his medication, against their advice (bad client!). But, I had taken their advice, and put him on a natural diet (good client!). They frowned at me. "By 'natural diet' we meant a kibble with less preservatives in it, not an unbalanced diet that could kill him." So I handed over the guaranteed analysis of what I was feeding him, and explained that it was balanced, for the most part (or certainly more balanced than what I ate) and contained NO preservatives or other nasties, which was obviously lowering his seizure threshold in the first place, and they should be patting themselves on the back with not only saving his life, but aside from the occasional focal seizure, curing his epilepsy without medication.

They frowned deeper. "I'm sorry, miss, but if you continue to feed him this unacceptable diet against our recommendations, we are not going to be able to continue to treat Molson."

Yep, you read that right.... they FIRED me. As a client. Because I saved my dog. Instead of opening their minds, asking for detailed information and doing their own research, following his case closely and trying to learn more from him in the hopes that maybe he could help them help future clients, they FIRED me, preferring instead to continue to tell people to simply to go home, enjoy your last few weeks with your three year old dog dying of the pills that WE gave him, and kiss him good-bye.

You know what... I paid my bill, and we left with a smile. We definitely got the better end of that bargain. Molson turned nine on the fifth, and while he's had a few bouts of seizures here and there, nothing has required medication, they've been mostly focal, no clusters, and he's now again been seizure free for over three years.

As I walked out the door, the vet said to me "I want you to know that you're killing your dog."

I just replied "I want you to know that you almost did."

kim May 28th, 2008 10:59:00 AM

thanks

topic September 16th, 2008 10:47:00 AM

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dsf March 23rd, 2009 07:57:04 PM

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