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 our other vet video, “Stand Up to Your Vet,” and find informative articles, referral lists for holistic vets and vets skilled in homeopathy at www.Dogs4Dogs.com/vet Also learn how to file a complaint against your vet. Subscribe to our blog at www.Truth4Dogs.com to be notified when our new videos and articles are available.
Learn your veterinarian’s responsibility to fully inform you about the risks of vaccination by reading this excellent article by an attorney/veterinarian: Veterinary Liability Related to Vaccination.
Is Your Dog’s Vet a Vaccination Expert?
Vaccinating: Unhealthy Pets: Beware Reactions & Vaccine Failure
Lower Your Vet Bills: 10 Tips for Keeping Costs Down
Please bookmark this article and tell your friends!
Posted under Nutrition, Pet Meds, Uncategorized, Vaccination, Veterinarians, Videos | 25 Comments » Email This Post
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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the imprinting stage of the 15 weeks for distemper in the cat or the dog and for parvo in the dog.The Rabies Laws are OUTDATED and not in keeping with scientific research.The USDA is hopelessly defecient and the FDA, well, ask Lou Dobbs about the FDA.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 Xylazine 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.
September 18th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
My sweet little 12 pond Chihuahua was having massive hypoglycemic seizures at 9:30 am after administering a insulin shot. When I called the vetenarian who prescribed the insulin treatement for my dog’s diabetes and who diagnosed the illness just a few days ago. After spending almost 700 dollars in medical bills just to stabalize her, the doctor at a veterinarian hospital in **** said she was too busy and to see her at 8 am the next day. At 3 am I had to drive 50 miles to the nearest city, Fresno to get her put down as an act of mercy because she was in such pain, stiff, howling and out of her mind. I guess money is all that matters to this “doctor”. Never go to this … Veterinarian, go to a where they are open 24 hours a day and care for animals who are in need of emergency care.
September 18th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Ken, I’m so sorry for your loss. I hope you’ll find a way to make something good happen from this tragedy.
Tell your friends what happened. Report the vet to your state’s veterinary board. Find out how at http://www.dogs4dogs.com/vet Send your vet an emotional-packed letter letting her know how disappointed you are in her callousness and how your dog, your friend, died because she was “too busy.” In short, make it hard for her to ignore a plea for help again. At this point, it’s all you can do, but it’s an important thing to do.
I send you a hug.
October 13th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Bless you for all you do to help people with their beloved animal companions.
I lost three dogs within 12 months of each other… two to what the specialist referred to as “plate related osteosarcoma.” This is bone cancer related to the non medical grade metal implants used a few years ago in their TPLO procedures.
The doctor from the university who did the research on the TPLO inferior metal implants’ association with osteosarcoma told me through emails that even though there was a percentage of dogs developing osteosarcoma associated with the inferior metals, there are colleagues that would not agree, because lots of dogs get osteosarcoma who don’t have metal implants, so they would say he’s off his rocker. The TPLO is a big money making procedure.
When Trouble’s regular vet misdiagnosed him (telling me that he only had arthritis and to give him aspirin for pain…you DO NOT give aspirin for bone cancer) I KNEW his pain wasn’t from arthritis… so I took him to the specialist who did his TPLO. He saw the tumor immediately on the original x-ray and could feel the tumor in his leg. A biopsy confirmed OS and amputation was the treatment to relieve the pain. (He died four months later.)
So when Fly became lame, I KNEW it was OS…. my worst nightmare…. so I took her to my regular vet who took x-rays (the visible tumor was in her L7 vertebrae) and said she did not have cancer, only arthritis. He wanted to vaccinate her for rabies, as she was “overdue”. I told him to do a titer, which he did, and IT CAME BACK NORMAL. There was no way I was going to have her vaccinated when I KNEW she had cancer.
So I took Fly to the specialist who did her TPLO (Trouble’s doctor) since he saw Trouble’s tumor on the x-ray… I thought he’d be able to see it right away. He said he didn’t see any cancer on the x-ray so he took more x-rays. He told me that Fly had arthritis and as much as I didn’t want him to, he put her on rimadyl. She wasn’t getting better… I took her back to him. He said she didn’t have cancer as he knew my concerns (and he was afraid of a lawsuit.) He told me the other TPLO specialist had viewed the x-rays who also said there were no signs of cancer.
Note from Jan: read more about TPLO at http://specialneedsdogsmusicandmore.blogspot.com
October 27th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Dear Ms. Rasmusen,
Thank you for the opportunity to relate the experience I have with a veterinary practice I now consider unsafe, after what happened to my cat while he was a patient there. This clinic … was recommended to me by the rescue I was volunteering for at the time. For two years I was a satisfied customer. But in early 2008, I brought my elderly cat, Smokey, there because I noticed a severe swelling of his front paw.
In order to find the source of the swelling one of the clinic doctors took an X-ray of Smokey’s chest, which did not help diagnose the swelling. As was determined later, however, this X-ray contained evidence of a severe congestive heart failure, which the vet who took the X-ray, and later another clinic vet, totally ignored, despite the fact that Smokey was losing his appetite, wasting away, gurgling upon breathing, showed reluctance to lie down and lethargy (all symptoms consistent with congestive heart failure). As a result, Smokey went without treatment for the congestive heart failure for close to three weeks.
Alarmed by the symptoms, I rushed him to the ER, where he died after being sedated for another X-ray. The second X-ray showed that in the three weeks since the first X-ray, Smokeys heart disease had progressed to what appeared to be pericardial effusion. And yet congestive heart failure is often treated successfully with beta blockers and diuretics. Smokey’s congestive heart failure was diagnosed on the first X-ray (taken at [the first hospital] by two vets at the ER and later by a Tufts University vet. Yet, when I confronted the owner (and head vet) of [the first hospital]about his two staff vets missing the congestive heart failure on the X-ray that one of them took, he stated to me that this disease cannot be seen on an X-ray and that it cannot be recognized by anyone other than a veterinary cardiologist.
It has been close to two years, and I am still affected by what I see as this evasive and untruthful explanation. It scares me to think that either this veterinarian does not know the basics in diagnosing heart disease or lacks professional integrity to the degree that in order to avoid responsibility for his staff’s errors, he would pretend not to have such basic scientific knowledge.
I believe this veterinary practice is unsafe and unethical. It is heavily involved with rescue, draws much of its revenue from rescue patients, and earns the rescue people’s seal of approval in the community. Yet, when I confronted the head vet about his staff’s errors, he banned me and three other volunteers (all members of my family) from walking convalescing homeless dogs boarded for the rescue group at his facility 24/7 with no outside runs. This did not serve these patients’ best interest. Also, when two cats were abandoned at the doorstep of his facility in the summer of 2008, the head vet ordered his staff (before they had a chance to seek other options) to have these cats picked up by animal control (this is in the county where the high-kill shelter was full that day).
I think pet owners should be warned to be very cautious about vets recommended by rescue groups. I understand it is not uncommon for rescues to be biased and lack objectivity about the clinical skills of the vets they associate with. Had I had this warning before choosing a vet, the tragedy of Smokey’s misdiagnosis may not have happened.
October 27th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Natalie, I’m so sorry for what happened. I’m also sorry to tell you that I have posted your story but had to delete the name of the hospital. I can’t personally verify what happened, and don’t want to be sued.
That said, just the telling of your story is powerful. I wish you healing and happiness.
October 27th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Jan, thank you! I understand about the name of the hospital. I do have all the documentation, however, so if you would like to see it, I’d be happy to send it to you. The main purpose of my posting the story on your site though is to warn other pet owners to be cautious with respect to rescues’ recommendations, not expose the veterinary establishment. If you would like the documentation in any case, please let me know.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Jan, an update: the veterinarian who missed Smokey’s heart failure on an X-ray has been issued a formal letter of censure by the state veterinary board. A censure is a matter of public record. This veterinarnian also attended classes at a regional conference to “improve his ability…” to interpret radiographs and ultrasounds. I feel some measure of peace, knowing that his future cardiac patients may receive better care than what Smokey received. I am still very sad though. I have created a blog in Smokey’s memory. You can link to it at http://cpahclientsbeware.blogspot.com/2009/11/college-park-animal-hospital-vet.html. Thank you again for all you do to raise awareness of this difficult issue.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Natalie, thanks for the update. If more people would file complaints, as you have, when their pets get substandard care, our pets (and our hearts) would be in much better shape.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
could someone please tell me what kind of dog food is best for my chihuahuas? one is 4 months and the other two are 8 months, the 8 months old are on iams lamb and rice and the 4 month is on exclusive puppy food
August 31st, 2010 at 9:18 am
Carlie, you need a food for both dogs that are approved for “all stages of life.” Check out the foods at http://www.dextersdeli.com. Dexter’s carries most of the best brands.