BTaylor322
09-04-2008, 04:15 PM
We lost our noble, beautiful, huge dark red Rufus just over a week ago. He was only 7, and we'd had him since he was 5 months old. What is even more awful is that it shouldn't have happened.
Rufus has always been one to eat stuff - cloth items mostly, but since we'd switched him to a Rx food for irritable bowels, he'd seemed to have stopped. Earlier this year - like the end of February, though, he'd had stomach surgery - again, as he'd gotten a hold of one of their coats and bits got stuch in his stomach.
He wasn't eating their nesting stuff, and it may be that the bath towel that was his undoing was actually placed there as just more soft thing to nest in. At any rate, on Saturday 8/16, and after he did eat his dinner, he started to act very ill. At around 8, we took him to one of the emergency vet clinics in the area, the one closest to us. I'd also found a pair of cheap reading glasses, and I was VERY concerned that there was a bit in his stomach. Vet on duty took one X-ray (2 views) but did nothing else. You could see something in his stomach, but we didn't know what, and she blew it off to us as "probably just food". We were told to give him a Pepcid and Gas-X, and shown the door. She did give him an injection for some "abdominal discomfort" but that is all.
When by 10 that evening he was looking SO AWFUL that we went back and pleaded w/ them to keep him overnight on observation. By now, he was absolutely NOT going to eat ANYTHING. Not at all like our Rufus. As far as we know, they just stuck him in a cage and left him. When I called the next morning they claimed that he was better. He sure didn't seem so when we picked him up. I should say that there IS another E-vet's in our area, but much farther away, and the last time we'd been there we hadn't been very satisfied, so we didn't try to take him to them. (REALLY bad mistake.) My husband faxed our regular vet to the effect that we were going to be there the 1ST thing Monday morning. I also brought the brief discharge notes and a CD copy of the only X-rays they'd taken.
When our vet saw them, SHE was ALARMED! She operated later that day and found 4 perforations of his small intestine, one perforation in his stomach, and a wildly inflammed pancreas. (One of the towel bits had been leaning on it.) The next day, she said she really wanted to transfer him to the other E-vet - now in a much larger facility w/ a Board Certified Vet in Critical Care.
Poor RUFUS!!! Everyone there LOVED HIM, and they all fought so hard. We visited him every day, but it broke our hearts to see our beautiful noble boy in such a sad state. Fluid kept on building up in his abdomen, and he was operated on a 2d time. The protein levels in his blood were 1/2 what they should be, so they also gave him transfusions of human albumen. He never responded. His liver and pancreas had been so damaged that he just wasn't able to heal.
On the morning of the 25th, we got a call from his attending vet to the effect that he was crashing. She didn't know how long he'd live. If it looked like they'd lose him before we got there (it's a 40 minute trip), did I want them to resusitate him. No, but try giving him oxygen if it would help. We RUSHED over there, and our beloved boy was still with us - only just. We held his beautiful body as they helped in releasing him from all that suffering.
So why do I say it was needless? Because our regular vet showed us the notes that the 1st E-vet had faxed to them. The vet who saw him on Saturday, had made notes to look into the possibility of a foreign body, but she didn't. They have an ultra sound machine but they never took an ultra sound. (Our vet has one, too, and she DID use it.) IF the 1st E-vet HAD done what she should have, he might be alive today. The fragments of towel would have shown up. Also, a barium X-ray would have shown all sorts of alarming stuff, too. They didn't take one.
It's very likely that by Monday, it was already too late. Peretonitis HAD set in,and he was septic. OUR POOR BEAUTUFUL BIG RED BOY!!!! Two E-vets in question are the Veterinary Emeregency & Surgical Hospital (VESH a/k/a the bad guys), and The Emergency and Critical Care Clinic - (EVC - the good guys).
We have already filed a complaint with the state Board of Veterinary Medicine, and there is some some of "looking into" the complaint on the 23d. Sadly, I don't expect much. This is a small state run by "good old boy" networks. We felt we did have to file in any case.
I had to vent, and everywhere I still see Rufus. Thank God, we do still have Simon (our large chocolate dapple boy) and Mason (our small standard silver dapple boy). They're doing the best they can. Rufus and Simon were VERY close, so close that I truly believe that Simon already knew from Rufus that he was so ill.
Barbara
Rufus has always been one to eat stuff - cloth items mostly, but since we'd switched him to a Rx food for irritable bowels, he'd seemed to have stopped. Earlier this year - like the end of February, though, he'd had stomach surgery - again, as he'd gotten a hold of one of their coats and bits got stuch in his stomach.
He wasn't eating their nesting stuff, and it may be that the bath towel that was his undoing was actually placed there as just more soft thing to nest in. At any rate, on Saturday 8/16, and after he did eat his dinner, he started to act very ill. At around 8, we took him to one of the emergency vet clinics in the area, the one closest to us. I'd also found a pair of cheap reading glasses, and I was VERY concerned that there was a bit in his stomach. Vet on duty took one X-ray (2 views) but did nothing else. You could see something in his stomach, but we didn't know what, and she blew it off to us as "probably just food". We were told to give him a Pepcid and Gas-X, and shown the door. She did give him an injection for some "abdominal discomfort" but that is all.
When by 10 that evening he was looking SO AWFUL that we went back and pleaded w/ them to keep him overnight on observation. By now, he was absolutely NOT going to eat ANYTHING. Not at all like our Rufus. As far as we know, they just stuck him in a cage and left him. When I called the next morning they claimed that he was better. He sure didn't seem so when we picked him up. I should say that there IS another E-vet's in our area, but much farther away, and the last time we'd been there we hadn't been very satisfied, so we didn't try to take him to them. (REALLY bad mistake.) My husband faxed our regular vet to the effect that we were going to be there the 1ST thing Monday morning. I also brought the brief discharge notes and a CD copy of the only X-rays they'd taken.
When our vet saw them, SHE was ALARMED! She operated later that day and found 4 perforations of his small intestine, one perforation in his stomach, and a wildly inflammed pancreas. (One of the towel bits had been leaning on it.) The next day, she said she really wanted to transfer him to the other E-vet - now in a much larger facility w/ a Board Certified Vet in Critical Care.
Poor RUFUS!!! Everyone there LOVED HIM, and they all fought so hard. We visited him every day, but it broke our hearts to see our beautiful noble boy in such a sad state. Fluid kept on building up in his abdomen, and he was operated on a 2d time. The protein levels in his blood were 1/2 what they should be, so they also gave him transfusions of human albumen. He never responded. His liver and pancreas had been so damaged that he just wasn't able to heal.
On the morning of the 25th, we got a call from his attending vet to the effect that he was crashing. She didn't know how long he'd live. If it looked like they'd lose him before we got there (it's a 40 minute trip), did I want them to resusitate him. No, but try giving him oxygen if it would help. We RUSHED over there, and our beloved boy was still with us - only just. We held his beautiful body as they helped in releasing him from all that suffering.
So why do I say it was needless? Because our regular vet showed us the notes that the 1st E-vet had faxed to them. The vet who saw him on Saturday, had made notes to look into the possibility of a foreign body, but she didn't. They have an ultra sound machine but they never took an ultra sound. (Our vet has one, too, and she DID use it.) IF the 1st E-vet HAD done what she should have, he might be alive today. The fragments of towel would have shown up. Also, a barium X-ray would have shown all sorts of alarming stuff, too. They didn't take one.
It's very likely that by Monday, it was already too late. Peretonitis HAD set in,and he was septic. OUR POOR BEAUTUFUL BIG RED BOY!!!! Two E-vets in question are the Veterinary Emeregency & Surgical Hospital (VESH a/k/a the bad guys), and The Emergency and Critical Care Clinic - (EVC - the good guys).
We have already filed a complaint with the state Board of Veterinary Medicine, and there is some some of "looking into" the complaint on the 23d. Sadly, I don't expect much. This is a small state run by "good old boy" networks. We felt we did have to file in any case.
I had to vent, and everywhere I still see Rufus. Thank God, we do still have Simon (our large chocolate dapple boy) and Mason (our small standard silver dapple boy). They're doing the best they can. Rufus and Simon were VERY close, so close that I truly believe that Simon already knew from Rufus that he was so ill.
Barbara