Bad Vet Experiences?

[Annoellyn]

I had an incident with a vet that resulted in the death of my cat that still really bothers me.
I was wondering if any others have had bad vet advice or a bad vet experience.
We were fostering a cat through our local rescue. Was a stray they caught and nothing further about his history was known. He was such a perfect fit mine and my roommate, even our adult cat got along great with him. He was super super cuddly almost to the point of annoyance. So we them know we wanted to submit to adopt Simba!
He still had to get all his vaccines and get fixed before we should submit our application so we just enjoyed his company in the meantime.
But this cat was huuuuungry all the time. We even had to hide bread because he would rip it open and eat it. He would eat bizarre things and even try and get our food while we trying to eat it.
We kept finding vomit every where and he wasn't gaining weight from when we had received him. We had had him for three weeks at this point so he should have gained at least a little weight.
We took him to the vet and they said he was not terribly under weight and it wasn't a concern. They did a check up and said he looked fine. They gave him wet cat food which he ate like a crazy cat and they said he's eating good, is very food motivated. Sent him home.
I took him home and my roommate was really upset that they said his weight wasnt an issue, I can feel that he's underweight when I pet him. I said well maybe it's not as bad as we think, we'll give it another week.

TWO DAYS later I'm sleeping on the couch and my dog keeps nudging me, won't leave me alone. I get up, figuring she has to pee, but she keeps going into my bathroom, whining. I go in there and simba is laying on the floor. Weird spot to lay but whatever. But my dog keeps nosing him. I picked up Simba and walked with him to his cat house, setting him upright. But he just....flops down and his feet do this weird thing like he's trying to stand up. I try and help him but his back legs won't work. I start freaking out, crying, called the animal hospital to tell them I'm bringing a cat in.
We get there and we're seen immediately. The Dr examines Simba who can barely lift his head now and gets extremely angry with me, demanding to know when the last time this cat ate?? I said he eats all the time, everything but he keeps puking! We took him just two days ago for this reason! He said this cat has final stage jaundice and there is no way NO WAY that a vet wouldn't have noticed this. He kept pointing at the cats ears saying look how yellow they are, you didn't see this either??
Hes an orange ****ing cat!
They said they need to put him down immediately, he is suffering a lot, he's dying.
So I go in with a cat and come out with nothing.
Pretty much as soon as I got home I called the vet office and complained, I complained to the rescue that they should not use that vet. My roommate was really upset, even now years later the mention of that clinic he gets so mad.
They just said a bunch of bullshit that a general check up things can be missed. I did not bring him in for a general check up!!! I brought him in for losing weight, vomiting, and excessive hunger!! They said oh there must have been a miscommunication. I still have the vet documents from that Dr that said "Simba is a healthy weight".

He would have been such a great cat, I am so sad we didn't get to adopt him.

 

[Jcatbird]

I’m so sorry. I have had an incompetent vet once. I took in a cat with an obviously dislocated hip. He claimed it was not dislocated. I was at a loss. I could easily tell! I demanded an X-ray and the vet returned with his diagnosis. A dislocated hip! Duh! He was a young and inexperienced vet and I feel we “educated him” that day. He did not get a chance to treat that cat. I went to someone else. It isn’t common for vets to miss things but it happens due to inexperience, being overworked, making mistakes or just incompetence. Vet and doctors are human and meds up sometimes. We go to them for their expertise but mistakes do happen. Even the best vets can make mistakes. Missing jaundice seems a little hard to understand but the orange tint might not have been apparent when the first vet say him. Too much vitamin A can also cause an orange tint. If you actually do run into a really bad vet, it’s something that can be handled through the vetrinary board.
I have also had false test results on cats. False negative on a Felv cat. The testing isn’t perfect but since she came out of an active Felv colony, she should probably have been retested. I lost her to the illness in her second year. Since she had it, there was little that vould have been done but I would have recognized the cause of her illness quicker and maybe could have extended her quality of life a little longer but once the disease took over .....I still miss Pearl. I try to temeber that st least I have her comfort and love while she was with me. She was not alone at the end. It sounds like you cat had a serious liver issue. It’s possible that nothing would have changed the outcome. I am so sorry you experienced losing Simba so quickly but I’m dry glad he had you while he did. When he left, he left knowing love. You did all you could have done with the information you were given.

 

[MissClouseau]

Gosh I'm so sorry for Simba! I hope our bad experiences don't discourage anyone to take their pets to the vet. A bad vet is usually still better than no vet as long as they do tests.

I take Hima to two different vet clinics in the neighborhood and each has their good sides but also I have a long list of complaints about both. At the first clinic, which is the favorite mostly because Hima gets less anxious there, the vet isn't good at communication. Hima was hospitalized there for a week that's how we met and I learned only on day 4 there is no human at the clinic at nights. The animals stay alone in complete darkness. I would never accept something like this. She insisted on FIP was the more likely option based on blood test result although Hima started to get better as early as the day 1 of the treatment. And this was AFTER I told them I had anxiety disorder. She even said a few things that would freak me out even more it was kind of like dark comedy I swear. She once prescribed a handmade gel for the wound on Hima's tongue the nearby pharmacy prepares and that was torture to try to give her, I later learned there is a similar product from a company that has liver flavor and that was relatively easy to give. Why did she not mention that product or doesn't know? If she sees Hima for the second time in a couple months without a complaint but check up, she doesn't do a proper exam but charge me for the exam. Like that time she didn't look inside her mouth and wouldn't know the wound if I didn't tell her. She didn't mention anything about milk thistle although Hima had and still has abnormal liver levels nor ever made a single comment or question about her diet.

I could go on. I can never feel "OK, she's in good hands" and sit back honestly. They don't do a bad job when I ask them to do something like a test or a treatment but I'm the one who should ask.

 

[Annoellyn]

That's very true that the vet wasn't likely incompetent, just missed it. I think I got over it okay but my roommate is still pretty mad at the vet office. He won't consider fostering again unless they boycott that vet, or agree to let use a different vet.
I'm sorry to everyone else's experiences.