Avoiding Dangerous Veterinarians
Written by Jan on June 21, 2008 – 4:13 pm
Cancer is epidemic in pets and all of us have, or know someone who has, a dog with diabetes, severe allergies, skin problems or liver, heart or kidney disease. It’s time to rethink veterinary care. Watch our video to learn how to spot a dangerous vet through his practices of over-vaccination, negligence, pushing “fast food,” price gouging and more. The information revealed in this video may well save your dog’s life.
Watch “Avoiding Dangerous Veterinarians” and other videos, and find informative articles, great links, and code to embed this video on your own website, at www.Dogs4Dogs.com/vet Subscribe to our blog at www.Truth4Dogs.com to be notified when our new video, Standing Up to Your Vet, is available.
Please tell your friends!
Posted under Nutrition, Pet Meds, Uncategorized, Vaccination, Veterinarians, Videos | Email This Post
Posts
June 21st, 2008 at 5:10 pm
This video is well done and obviously looked into what is going on behind the doors of many veterinary facilites, the dirty laundry no one wants to believe exists. I find most of the well done internet sites like ww.catshots.com and the Canine Health Concern are the passionate work of a veterinary client whom lost their beloved companion because they were not granted FULL DISCLOSURE and certainly not INFORMED CONSENT. The medical hubris of our profession, we will look back at this time in SHAME and in HORROR as said by Dr. Harris Coulter on the collateral damage done by the medical profession.Dr. Jean Dodds covered the Topic in our national meeting last year, WHY are vets still over vaccinating? Is it IGNORANCE or something else? We know and have the research to state vaccines are NOT indicated past the imprinting stage of the 15 weeks for distemper in the cat or the dog and for parvo in the dog.The Rabies Laws are OUTDATED and not in keeping with scientific research.The USDA is hopelessly defecient and the FDA, well, ask Lou Dobbs about the FDA. Owners need to be proactive in both their and the pets health, unfortunatley, the very organizations defined to protect the public are all failing us. I hope this video awakens the companion animal caretakers to the INCONVENIENT TRUTHS of pet health industry.
Sincerely,
Dr. Rachael Plane
June 22nd, 2008 at 7:50 am
Ms. Rasmusen, you are a personal hero of mine for posting this and for your campaign to make our dogs lives safer, healthier and longer. Of course, all the things you said about dogs go for cats too! (I have 1 dog and 4 cats!)
In your video, you asked the question how people will know if their vets have a prior disciplinary record with the state agency that regulates them. Some state boards have this information online, many do not. In every case, you can file a public records request with you state vet board to request disciplinary records.
The EXACT thing you talked about in your video happened to my cat. He was left in the care of the vet’s son — NOT a trained licensed technician. This young man used the wrong syringe to give my cat insulin, resulting in a 10x overdose (my cat was supposed to get 3 units, instead he got 30). He was then left alone overnight, and then after being visited in the morning, left alone again for over 13 hours. When he was found the next night he was having massive hypoglycemic seizures, was hypothermic, rigid, comatose, near death. They transferred him to another hospital leaving a note saying if he died, they would send a tech to pick up his dead body the next day. They never called me that night.
The vet was fined ONLY $250 by the vet bord for failure to supervise.
He never missed a day of work.
Presumably, they still leave patients alone overnight.
You can read many stories about such things on my blog, The Bad Vet Daily:
http://badvetdaily.blogspot.com
For the story of what happened to my cat, and selected disciplinary records from Maryland, Virginia, and Texas, visit The Toonces Project:
http://www.TheTooncesProject.com
You are right, people BLINDLY and unwisely trust their vets without critical intellectual assessment.
We need to change that, FOR PET’S SAKE!!!
Please let me know of ANYTHING I can do to help you.
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Thank you Jan, for an excellent video, and for being a courageous companion animal advocate! The more of us that raise public awareness on these issues, the better for the lives of our pets, both in quality and longevity.
A particularly horrific case of veterinary cruelty and abuse I experienced with my companion dog can be read at
http://walnut-hill.bravehost.com
Do not assume that your vet is licensed to administer humane euthanasia, ask if DEA (drug enforcement agency) licensed for schedule 11 narcotics, which is a requirement to purchase and administer sodium pentobarbital combination lethal drug solution
June 25th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Unfortunately, you are dead right. Our sweet Jack Russell, critically ill with pancreatitis, we now know was left all alone all night long and for 12-hour stretches on the weekend with an IV tube in her leg…until she chewed through it twice. We were never told that would be the sad case - and only found out after sitting for hours in the parking lot on a Saturday and pounding on the door in vain for someone to come. We were also not told that 24/7 expert care was available 5 miles away. The diet this Bad Vet gave our dog gave her pancreatitis - and her Bad Care killed our precious girl. Beware! They’re everywhere. Thanks, Jan for giving our dead “Jackie-O” a voice.
June 26th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Thank you for saying that we need to be advocates for our pets. Having moved several times, we’ve had both excellent and bad experiences with various vets, which have taught me this lesson several times. The excellent vets have always given us a plan of action and discussed problems with us before prescribing treatment. These vets also discussed prevention as much as treatment- without attempting to sell us anything! The bad vets advocated expensive treatments for minor ailments. For example, one vet wanted to do exploratory surgery on our Great Dane because he had a bladder infection. This was before he even did a specific gravity, a urine pH or a urine culture. In other words, his first diagnostic test was going to be exploratory surgery! Another vet we walked away from refused to contact our breeder about the sensitivity of her blood lines to certain anesthetics and doses of anesthetics. This vet insisted that she knew best what the anesthetic and dose should be. I later found out that this vet wasn’t even certified to treat giant breeds! I’m willing to bet that I know more about giant breeds than this so called “vet” did.
Thank you again for your warning…
July 1st, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I had a vet administer rimadyl to my 9 year old Saint without my knowledge or permission when he had a tooth pulled. 6 months later he was dead. Can never prove it was the rimadyl that did it (didn’t know about it until I picked his chart up) after we had him cremated. There wil always be doubt though in my mind the rimadyl caused a chronic underlying disease to manifest.
Halo
July 8th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Stempy, our beloved lil’ Shih Tzu boy, passed away at the age of 8 due to the negligence of his veterinarian in 2005. His is a long story that includes many aspects of BAD veterinary care. Unfortunately, we blindly trusted our vet. It took losing the most important thing in our lives for us to finally realize what we were dealing with - a BAD veterinarian. We miss Stempy more than words could ever express. Don’t let this happen to you. NEVER blindly trust your veterinarian!
If you are so inclined, you may read Stempy’s Story at his website:
http://stempy.bravehost.com/
and also at:
http://vetsfromhell.110mb.com/
Visit our Texas Vet Board Watch website:
http://texasvetboardwatch.110mb.com/
Need to check the disciplinary record of a Texas Vet?
http://texasveterinaryrecords.110mb.com/
July 17th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
I think unless your pet is being cared for at a 24 hour critical care facility, it seems to be the norm that sick, post-op pets are drugged and left alone overnight. A couple of years ago, my dog had to undergo emergency surgery for a bowel obstruction. When my vet said she had to spend the night, I asked who would be with her. She said no one. I then said that I could not leave her there. She tried to tell me that my dog would be so groggy that all she would do was sleep anyway and that she would be fine. When I said “And what if she stops breathing, who’s going to know? ” She just looked at me. I insisted that I was taking her home. I picked her up at 8:30 that night just before closing, against my vet’s advice, and I sat up with her the entire night. Contrary to what my vet said, she awoke often during the night. I was there to comfort her and let her know it was going to be OK. Had I left her at the vet’s, she would have awakened during the night in a cold cage, all alone and frightened. Having me there allowed her to snuggle up a little closer and go right back to sleep, knowing she was safe. Two wrong diagnoses after that and I was out of there. We now have a new vet, a wonderful lady who listens to my concerns, answers my questions instead of blowing me off and actually acknowledges that I have made it a point to know alot more about my dog’s breed than most people care to learn. I consider her my partner in my dog’s health care.
September 29th, 2008 at 11:10 am
After reading all the stories, I wonder how do you find a good vet? I’ve used word of mouth about the one we currently have and she is “ok.” Luckily my dog is pretty healthy at the moment so the vet has never been “tested” by us. We may be moving to a new community where we won’t know anyone … how would we find a good vet there? I know there are some internet resources, but if the vet is under the radar on those, then what? Jan, and others, what do you recommend???
September 29th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I suggest you look for a vet at http://www.holisticvetlist.com. I hope this is helpful.
Jan
October 15th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Please look at this website: http://www.metacamkills.com/
Our beautiful feline, PATCHES, was destroyed by the misuse of Metacam. I feel so bad…..
These vets are using it off label and often not telling their clients.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:32 am
I took my dogs to a vet in Tempe Arizona. He took my male puppy to the back room for a routine test and when he came back out he said “your dog acted up, so I corrected him”. I trusted this vet and thought nothing of it. However, Bogart (my little guy) hates people ever since. He used to love everybody, even vets and vet techs. Right after that this vet told me that my puppymill rescue senior had an enlarged heart and would only live two weeks to a month. He gave her prednisone and lasix. I gave these to her as prescribed. Sure enough she got sicker and sicker. Due to extenuating circumstances I discovered that he was giving her enough med’s. for a 150 lb. man (she’s a 5 lb. chihuahua). I found a heart specialist and took her there. He said that other than a slight murmur, her heart is fine and took her off the med’s (even the murmur is gone now). This vet did the same thing to a friend of mine. I now drive 3 hours to see a great vet who even refuses to leave dogs in his clinic overnight after surgery (my chi just had a mammary tumor removed and I picked him over the oncologists because he let her come home). He says “they’d stay all by themselves in here. That’s not healthy, if they need to stay overnight I transport them back to my house and they sleep in a kennel by my bed”. There’s a great vet!!
March 8th, 2009 at 4:41 am
I have educated myself and trust NO vet 100%. I think I know too much, so do they!
June 6th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I took my beloved cockapoo to Clinic X, in Maryland for a neuter surgery that never took place and my healthy young dog died. I am traumatized and devastated beyond any thing you can imagine. Please never ever trust blindly any veterinarian. I had to endure a painful necropsy to prove what I already knew that my precious dog was in fact healthy. I will never be the same person I once was. The pain is unexplainable, I can’t sleep at night without waking up to horrible nightmares. My dog died from a cattle & horse drug used without my informed consent. I was left alone to research what happened with only the scimpy vet’s medical report that I requested, not offered. The drug Manufacturer helped me find some of the answers. The Pathologist was compassionate to me and answered many unanswered questions that would have otherwise not have been answered. No one needs to go through this because of carelessness. Inform yourself before you ever step into a veterinarian’s office. They don’t tell you the side effects always if ever. The pain is unbearable. Mutley will NEVER be forgotten I miss him so much. I cry daily and hate the fact that this does happen more often than not. The name of the drug is **** 100mg/ml. that was diluted and injected into my little dog.
June 7th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Thank you for posting your very painful story. I’m so sorry for your loss. Things like this happen way too often. There have been numerous cases of humans getting the wrong drug, or wrong dose, in hospitals and dying. It’s so senseless. I hope you’ll file a complaint with your local veterinary board. There’s information on doing this on my Veterinarian page. My dogs and I send you a hug.