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Sucky Vets vs Awesome Vet (and RIP Hoochie) Warning: Sad

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  • Sucky Vets vs Awesome Vet (and RIP Hoochie) Warning: Sad

    It was a very sad weekend for me and my girlfriend.....we had to have one of her cats put down. Needless to say, that's a heart-breaking, gut-wrenching decision to have to make, and it was made all the worse by the uncaring vets who refused to see the cat without an appointment!

    This particular cat was 19 years old, going on 20, so she definitely had a good run, but her time had clearly come. She had stopped eating, was barely able to move (at one point staying on the bed for nearly 48 hours), was no longer able to use the litter box, and was losing weight at an alarming rate.

    This past Wednesday, she decided enough was enough and called the local vet. After explaining the situation, the vet's office said that since Hoochie wasn't a patient there, they had to treat her as a new patient, that soonest they could see her was the following TUESDAY, and that the cat would probably be dead by then!

    Um, what??? It would be one thing to say that if the cat was healthy and just needed a checkup, or if the cat only had a minor-ailment and wasn't at the end of its life. It's quite another to refuse an emergency case. Heck, if they had just said something like "I'm sorry but we're extremely busy and can't accept any walk-ins today" it might've been OK, but they didn't. I mean, could you imagine a hospital emergency room turning away a dying person just because they weren't a regular patient there??

    My GF was so upset after that call that she couldn't bear to call another vet and have to explain it all over again, so she decided to wait. Amazingly, the cat kept hanging on, and was still alive when I came down Friday evening.

    Saturday morning I checked and the cat was still alive, but clearly was getting worse. She'd crawled off her blanket to the water bowl we'd left nearby, but could not get back to the blanket afterwards. I kept the cat company for a while and realized she'd lost so much weight that no matter where you patted her you could feel bone. She hadn't been nearly as thin only a week prior. Right about then she also started meowing pitifully.

    I looked up at my GF and told her this couldn't go on any longer. The poor thing was just slowly starving to death. She agreed, and this time called the vet where Hooch was actually registered as a patient.....


    ....Only to be told again that an appointment was required, and the soonest they could see her was 4:45 that evening, a full 5 hours away!!

    That was just too much for my GF.....neither of us could bear to keep watching the poor cat suffer for another 5 hours; it had been too long already. She was absolutely beside herself in tears. Since she couldn't make another call, I ended up calling a 24-hour emergency vet clinic a couple of towns away, and thankfully they said we could come right in.

    Man, I'm telling you that vet was a Godsend after being turned away twice already. They were extremely professional about everything and treated us and the cat with every bit of dignity and respect that the situation called for. All of the staff were exceedingly polite and compassionate. The receptionist even offered us some water without being asked. I know that sounds minor but I thought it was a very nice gesture under the circumstances.

    After it was all over they put the body in a very nice, sturdy, cardboard coffin with a comfy blanket in it at no extra charge. They even waived the usual fees that 24-hour emergency vets typically add due to the inherently costlier service they offer, billing us only for the deed itself. AND they offered to call Hoochie's regular vet to inform them that she had been put down, thus saving us the additional anguish of having to make that call ourselves.

    Honestly, I don't think there was anything they could possibly have done to make the process any gentler or easier, and that's saying a lot since neither myself nor my GF had ever witnessed a pet being put to sleep before.

    Seriously though, I can't get over the fact that not one but two vets refused to see us without a prior appointment. I mentioned that to my mother, who had to bring a couple of our cats in for checkups the next day, and she mentioned it our my family's regular vet, and THEY were absolutely flabbergasted. They couldn't believe that any vet would refuse to help a suffering dying animal just because it wasn't a regular patient and/or didn't have an appointment.

    *phew* That took longer than I had intended.....I just had to get it off my chest. I'll try to post pictures of the kitty after I get home (it's totally dead at work right now but i can't get on Facebook from here)
    "We guard the souls in heaven; we don't horse-trade them!" Samandrial in Supernatural

    RIP Plaidman.

  • #2
    So sorry for your loss. Those vets need have some kind of compassion training or something that is just totally not right.
    Lay your hands upon me
    Like an angel from above
    Put your arms around me,
    'Cause you're fallin'

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    • #3
      I'm so sorry for your loss.

      And that's one of the reasons that we use a vet whose office is all the way across the valley. Because he lives down the street from us, and he has told us that in case of an emergency, we can run down the street and pound on his front door.

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      • #4
        Huge hugs. I'm so sorry for your loss and all the crap you had to deal with with the other vets.
        At the conclusion of an Irish wedding, the priest said "Everybody please hug the person who has made your life worth living. The bartender was nearly crushed to death.

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        • #5
          RIP Hoochie.

          The last one is of her dog keeping the cat company during her last days. He knew she was sick.
          Attached Files
          "We guard the souls in heaven; we don't horse-trade them!" Samandrial in Supernatural

          RIP Plaidman.

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          • #6
            I'm truly sorry to hear about the loss of your beloved friend. I know that's a tough decision to make, and I think you made the right one. Some vets really need to find another profession. Like a doctor, they're supposed to relieve pain and suffering - and really, how long does it take to do that, anyway? Even if it was just a quick 'wham bam', all-business procedure, it would still be a more humane thing to do than let the animal suffer like that. Much love for the vet who helped out when no one else would, and double love for their compassion to you as well as to kiitty.

            I've had to make 'the decision' three times in my life, and it's never easy. Cats are wonderful, loving little creatures, and I truly believe they are just as intelligent as humans - in some cases, perhaps more so. And there are few things in life more painful than watching your furry friend
            suffer. Take solace in the knowledge that Hoochie's misery is at an end, and that you gave her something many animals never know - a safe, loving home.

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            • #7
              to you and your girlfriend. It's a heartbreaking decision to put a pet to sleep; I've had to go through it far too many times myself. The love and companionship our pets give us over their too-short lives are worth the anguish at the end, but it's still heartbreaking.

              It doesn't help when those who're supposed to ease things along act as unprofessionally and heartlessly as the first two vets you called. I'm glad the last bunch were so good to you. They deserve big kudos for their graciousness and compassion.

              Thank you for posting the pictures. Hoochie was a lovely little calico. And the dog keeping her company...you're right, they do know. I've seen it with my previous pets. They know their friend is sick and want to offer what comfort they can. I'm sure that wonderful dog is giving you that same comfort, too.
              I don't have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.
              My LiveJournal
              A page we can all agree with!

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              • #8
                I am so, so sorry. May Hoochie rest in peace.

                My vets would be outraged by the behavior of those vets. Mine are wonderful, caring, compassionate people.

                At least the emergency vet people understood and actually CARED.

                I know caring for pets is a business and all, but come on....
                When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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                • #9
                  I'm so sorry for your loss. I've had to make that decision a few times and it's always awful.

                  And I can't even begin to fathom those two vets ... especially the one that Hoochie went to regularly! I had to bring a cat in once, when it was obvious she was failing quickly, and the vet actually said to me, "You know, I think she's come to the end of her road." The vet gently advised me to have her put down then and there (I did).

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                  • #10
                    At least you know a couple of places not to use in the future and one professional vet.

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                    • #11
                      There's a vet I actively remind myself not to use because he didn't tell us of a surgeon in the area willing to do a free IVDD operation on our suddenly-paraplegic dog...which we didn't learn until AFTER we gave her up to the Humane Society.

                      Why?

                      HE wanted the money from the surgery.


                      So while it's different, I know how it is to hate a vet....
                      My Guide to Oblivion

                      "I resent the implication that I've gone mad, Sprocket."

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                      • #12
                        When our dog got sick we went to a vet who spent more time lecturing us about not being able to afford her then actually looking at her. The local animal charity paid the bill because i'd lost my job a few weeks earlier and we couldn't afford it. He said she was fine and gave her a shot of something. The following afternoon she died. We always warned people about the place after that.

                        Move on two years and a couple of hours away to our new area. Our kitty was hit by a car and killed. A kind lady took him to the local vets who accepted his body even though he wasn't chipped and wasn't a patient until we called trying to find him. Then they kindly stored him until we could pay (in installments) for him to be cremated, they were so kind to us when we went to identify him and bent over backwards to ensure we could not only get him back but in a lovely casket. He came back today, we're devastated but their kindness could not be more welcome. We'll always recommend them.

                        It's amazing how different they were, i'll never forget either experience but for totally different reasons.

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                        • #13
                          I am so very sorry for your loss! I'm in tears right now. I'm sorry you had to go through such an ordeal, but I'm glad you eventually found a clinic that took such good care of you and Hoochie.

                          Not to argue or defend the first two clinics, but just to maybe offer a bit of a different perspective, I worked at a vet clinic in high school and the vet refused to euthanize a pet without an exam. She told me it was because she wanted to make sure that was the best course of action, that the pet was actually ill and the people weren't just tired of caring for an older pet, etc. She also said that sometimes people might think the situation was worse than it was in reality and there might be something she could do to help. Not that your situation fell into either of those categories, but especially if the pet has not been a patient at that clinic, the vet has no way of knowing that without seeing the animal.

                          That being said, I would still expect them to show a LOT more compassion in how they spoke to you.
                          "Redheads have at least a 95% chance of being gorgeous. They're also concentrated evil." - Irv

                          "This is all strange, uncharted territory and your hamster only has three legs." - Gravekeeper

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                          • #14
                            Dave, I'm truly sorry for your loss. I empathize with your pain.

                            When my service dog was hit by a car, the emergency vet came out after doing the exam and x-rays and asked us if we wanted a few minutes with her before they put her down. He didn't even tell me what was wrong with her! When I found out it was just a broken hind leg, I was furious! The vet assumed that since it would be an expensive surgery and long recuperation that I wouldn't want to deal with it. I went to almost every vet in three cities with the x-rays to find one who would be willing to do the surgery at a rate I could afford and have never regretted it. She can't work as my mobility dog anymore (helping me get off the floor and things like that), but she still does her other jobs as my psych dog.

                            By contrast, when my 22 year-old cat fell down the stairs and shattered his back leg, you could see it in his eyes that he was done. The vet we called (the nearest, not our regular vet) told us to come in immediately, was compassionate and caring, and carefully explained the diagnosis and our options. While we couldn't take up the offer of having Snowball's cremated ashes returned to us (we were broke at the time), the staff made it as easy on us to deal with the loss as they could.

                            Redhead, you present a plausible explanation and reasonable argument for having an exam before putting an animal down -- the only ones I can think of that are reasonable excuses -- but when an owner calls in saying that an animal is dying, I would think that they would make some time to see the animal immediately, or at least refer them to another clinic. Telling someone who's claiming that their pet is dying and needs to be put down that they have to wait is just inhumane.

                            You would think that people would show some basic human compassion in such an emotional time, but it's amazing how much humanity some humans lack.
                            Sorry, my cow died so I don't need your bull

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                            • #15
                              Dave1982, I'm so sorry for your loss. Our pets truly become a part of our families. The experience you and your girlfriend had with the suck vets really made my heart hurt. I'm glad though there was one good vet clinic at least, who treated you all with compassion.

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