I brought my dog to a local vet, none of my friends have ever had any problems with them or anything of the such. They took one look at my dog and said oh she has a touch of breast cancer, we'll do surgery next week, remove the mass and spay here. I'm english their french, but this is the jist of it. I trust people with medical degree's because, hey, I don't have one. I'm not a specialist. I trust my doctor, so why not trust my dog's doctor....
She doesn't eat past midnight, no water....
I drop her off at 7:30 AM so she can get the surgery done as quick as early as possible.
They only started her surgery at 5 PM. that's 17 hours without food or water....
Afterwards, I brought her home with antibiotics and pain medications, the next afternoon of course.
They claimed to have : removed the mass, spayed her, cut her nails, and cleaned her teeth.
The day after, (2 days after surgery), she starts throwing up and scratching at her belly, so I call the vet, they say Ohh it's normal, put her collar on her and feed her hamburger and rice.
Almost a week later, after hearing "she's fine, don't bother bringing her in" so many time, I called another vet. They told me right away to bring her in.
Her incision on her belly is sticking out like a herniated umbilical cord (sorry for the reference, but thats the only time I've ever seen something like this.) She wasn't eating, hardly drinking, had hardly any energy, and all she did was SHAKE.
And please don't get me wrong, she wasn't this bad up until the day after her last pain pill.
I brought her into the vet, and she was just disgusted by the other vet, completely disgusted.
They removed the mass, and put her under, without any xrays, blood tests or anything like that. They didn't remove the whole breast like they were supposed to, didn't look anywhere else for more lumps, never mentioned anything about finding out if it was malignant or cancer or anything of the sort. She took one look at my dogs teeth and said there was no way her teeth were cleaned, and I'm lucky they only claimed to have cleaned them, because if they had actually done it, it could have killed her.
Now I'm here (a student working part-time, living alone!), paying 5 times the price to stabilize her, and there's more work to be done. 1000$ to stabilize her, and I'm thinking there will need to be an other operation as her belly is so swollen.
Right now she's on an iv, she's dehydrated and extremely constipated, she's pooped once since she came home and it was so incredible hard it was like a rock...they did 2 xrays to look for more lumps and bloodwork, looking for infection. I don't remember what else their doing, but like I said.
Because of their negligence, my dog is at other vet, and it's costing me this much....
can I sue them?
I was thinking more...small claims court. I wouldn't want to sue them for more than the vet bills to make her better.
I paid with my bank card, I'm 20, I don't need a credit card.
Jessie
What a nightmare! Hope she's doing better now!
Yes, you can sue them.
However, I would also make a complaint to the board that regulates and polices vets in your area. (In the US, that would be the state board, but I don't know the name of the regulatory agency in your country.) These boards can impose sanctions and fines on vets and even revoke their licenses if the negligence or malpractice is sufficient to warrant it.
Ask the new vet for information on how to contact the appropriate regulatory agency. They are far more likely to give you that information than is the old vet. You also don't want to tip the old vet off that you're going to file a complaint--that tends to result in records being altered or destroyed.
Attorneys who take these cases usually take them on what is called a 'contingency fee', meaning that you don't pay them up front, but rather they are paid a percentage of any damages that are awarded by the court.
crack_wh0re_x
Ask the new vet that you brought your dog to to give you a letter or something to confirm it was negligence on the other vets behalf and yes l would ask for compensation or take them to court
Debby
Thats so sad. There are Crooked animal dr's just like there are human dr's. You could ask the second vets office if you can sue the first. You would need to new vets notes that things hadn't been done you were charged for at the first vets.
cjrossi
With medical services - even with hard evidence of negligent service, it is very hard to get them to give back any money you have paid them. They will typically offer to fix what they messed up for free... but then you have to go back there, and that is uncomfortable.
If you charged 1st vet on a credit card, you could dispute the bill, on the grounds that they didn't provide services (teeth cleaning) that they charged you for.
You can also threaten to share your experience with the local BBB, vet licensing board, their Google and Yahoo listings (remember, you can rate/review them there), and everywhere else you can think of.
As a small business owner I can tell you that this would get me thinking about refunding you - if your claims were legit. The fact that your claims are backed up by another vet helps.
My wife ran into a similar situation with a dentist. Turned out that the most economical choice for us was to let the 1st dentist fix her up for free. It was uncomfortable going back there, but in the end we were all fixed for free.
Kim
I do believe you would be able to sue them. Do be sure to get all of what you just said written down, and have evidence of it (can't sue them if you can't prove it). Also, you should report that vet to the proper authorities (I'm not really sure who) so that doesn't happen to other pets. I'm sorry about your dog, that really sucks. Hope she gets better soon!
Dr B C Jha, DVM
Dear, Every vets want to save their patient with best of their knowledge. However, mistake may happen from anyone. I do agree with you, a vet should be compassionate to their patient and listen to his client. Penalty should be applied if he really has made a mistake.
Dr B C Jha, DVM
bcjhadk@hotmail.com
MamaBas
Heck yes!! What a nightmare indeed.
First of all, it's quite normal for nil by mouth from around 10 pm the night before, but not to do the surgery until late in the day after that isn't!! I have no doubt she was probably sedated, and in fairness to them, they could have had a string of emergencies, but frankly as I much prefer to have mine home that day as they always recover better at home, and so many surgeries don't have anybody in attendance during the night in any case, I'd have expected to have had a call to say things were backed up, and to collect her and bring her back the following morning!!
In the UK the RCVS has a website with a link to 'complaints' , so depending on where you are located, I'd see if you have something similar. This sort of vet needs pulling up short and at best, I'd expect a refund!!
I hope she makes it through ........
ps We sued a vet once for what amounted to negligence - a delayed C.Section which resulted in the loss of 5 of 9 puppies and very nearly my b itch who wasn't able to carry another litter. Write down everything that happened, now, while it's fresh in your memory. The sequence of events needs noting.
In the beginning God created evolution.
Yes, they pretty much lapsed in basic veterinary care 101. Ask your vet what they should have done, and how much EXTRA this is now costing you because of their screwup. Sue them for that much. I wouldn't ask for more than what this cost extra, though, because if they'd done their job right you'd still be paying for surgery to remove all the lumps and breast, as well as blood work etc. Also include court costs in your suit, and if you really want to you can try to go for all medical costs since they WERE negligent.
Orignal From: My vet was negligent when treating my dog, what can I do?
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