Vets not exempt from shoddy medical practices

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TL;DR at bottom.

 

So get this.

 

My dog got sick last week.  She is the most wonderful little 15 lbs mutt you could ever meet.  Only wants to love you.  She's a miniature Schnauzer/ Havanese mix.

 

Tuesday and Wednesday she was suddenly in physical pain in her abdomin, vomiting, shivering (probably scared of pain), lethargic.  We were worried but thought it was just stomach bug or something and didn't panic.  Wednesday evening she perked up.  I gave her pedialyte and fed her a bit and she was great Thursday, Friday, Saturday.  Then in the early hours of Sunday morning, she started with the pain and shivering and vomiting again.

 

We took her to the emergency vet (being a Sunday) and they did blood, and xrays.    Xrays came back.  Vet said she had a very large growth in her abdomen that was creating pressure on her stomach, liver, and digestive tract.    She said it so large that it's likely not operable and would be fatal.

 

She gave us pain meds and sent us home.  The dog was in a lot of pain that night whimpering and such.  We decided that the dog shouldn't suffer.  By Sunday afternoon we had made up our minds to put our 'first child' to sleep. 

 

We took her on a last car ride and my wife propped her up in a towel and opened the window to let her stick her nose out.  My wife and myself were so depressed.  She was so lifeless that when we got back into our driveway we contemplated taking her back to the after hours clinic right then to end her suffering.  My wife in the middle of sobs said she wanted one more night with her in the big bed with the rest of the family and that we'll keep her medicated until morning when we'd call our normal vet. 

 

Given my insomnia and emotional fragility during this withdrawal process, I was down right hysterical by Monday morning. I had no sleep Friday night, Saturday I got 4.5  hours given that the dog woke up in pain, and then I wouldn't allow myself to sleep Sunday as I wanted to try and keep the dog sedated and comfortable and knowing my time was rapidly coming to an end with her I wanted to be awake as we counted down the hours.  We let the dog sleep in the big bed with the rest of the family.  The whimpering continued

 

My wife called our vet in the morning to schedule her euthanasia appointment as I couldn't even complete a single sentence on the topic.  The vet said to come by at 2:45 that afternoon(now Monday).  When my wife told me the time it was going to happen I freaked out again.  Looking at the dog laying in the bed, most of the night she could barely open her eyes, except when a wave of pain hit her and she would whimper.    The dog looked so pathetic.   

 

Somehow....  riding the waves of endorphines between crying fits, I decided to google some things regarding the medication my dog takes for chronic food allergies.

 

The poor dog is allergic to pretty much every meat protein we have available in the food market in my province.  The meds we were giving her were known to cause ulcers in long term use.  I don't want to digress on this subject too much because I could write a doctoral thesis on food allergies for dogs based on personal experience but lets say that we have exhausted ALL possibilities of meats in the dogs diet and recently swapped her to vegetarian diet where she was showing promise.

 

back on topic...  The dogs sick behavior suddenly started to look like my wifes behavior when SHE had a stomach ulcer a number of years ago.  When my wife had that, if she took a steroid or NSAID pain med like Advil, she would be in immense pain!  Well the dog medication was a steroid and anti-histamine combo called Vanectyl P.  I think it's also sold as Temaril P also.  So anyways given that we stopped giving her the allergy meds when she got sick Tuesday, then started meds again Saturday night before she suddenly wound up in pain again.  I started to suspect the meds.

 

Laying on the bed, I started playing the 'what if' game with my wife.  That's a hard thing to do in that situation because you dont want to prolong suffering and any 'what if' scenario inevitably drags the process out if you start diverging from your intended course.  I hated myself for potentially creating false hope after starting the greiving process but I had my wife call the emergency vet and asked for the xrays and blood work to be emailed to us.  We forwarded it to our vet for a 'last ditch effort'  second opinion.

 

That's where things start to get better.

 

Our vet basically said the emergency vet is jumping to conclusions.  No ultrasound or biopsy and anecdotal blood results she said means you cant claim cancer based on x-rays alone.  Also she says according to the xrays she sees intestinal blockages and matching foreign material in the stomach - not cancer.  She suspects diaper fragments but isn't sure.   

 

Our doggie stayed in the vets last night on IV to rehydrate her bowels and I just got off the phone with the vet and she says the material is now moving along through the small intestines and all blockages are clearing.  She hasn't pooped any of the contents yet but we will keep feeding her to stimulate digestion.  Shes coming home tonight to get lots of love from us.  Baby has been sent to grandparents. 

 

We are praying whatever it is doesn't get re-stuck because that's always a possibility. 

 

It just makes me sick to my stomach.  We were ready to euthanize our first 'baby' on the poor diagnosis of the emergency vet.  It almost happened.  Sunday night the dog was in such rough shape that we were ready to drive the 45 minutes back to the emergency vet to put her down.  We were in the car in the driveway ready to 'end the suffering'.  MY WIFE, through sobs, said she wanted one more night with her.  I didn't want to see the dog suffer if death was inevitable but what could I say, it was her dog too and that wasn't just my judgement call.

 

Early Monday morning, due to sleep deprivation and emotional trauma I nearly reinstated.  My pulse and blood pressure were way up and my Arrhythmia was nuts. I was scared I was doing damage to my heart.  If I had of put that dog down I don't know where I would have been emotionally.  The dog has been a huge comfort during my taper and withdrawal process and it terrified me to think that I wouldn't have that comfort in the wee hours of the morning during my insomnia, or whenever I feeling like shit in a sx wave.  I fucking love that Mutt.

 

TL;DR

Dog got sick. emerg vet said terminal cancer. we almost put dog down same day. almost reinstated in the throws of depression and sleep deprivation

Our vet came to completely different diagnosis and prognosis.  dog is still alive and doing well. So am I but Ill be happier when I see her crap out whatever she ate.

 

g33k

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I have had an similar case....I took my toy Chihuahua to the vet because she stopped eating....the first vet touched her tummy and said she had a tumor and it was most likely cancer and we should consider putting her down??!!!...not an option....the second vet said the same thing.....so we found a vet who dealt with large and small animals who seemed a little more compassionate with our situation....I was a mess as it had been a week and my poor baby was so small and weak...he did and ultra sound and an xray and discovered she had swallowed a quarter....he stuck a camera thing down her throat and pulled it out of her tummy...she stayed a day and was eating like crazy so she got to come home....its been six months now and we now put our change in a huge jar....and she is a plump little thing