IS THE VET RESPONSIBLE IF HER MEDS KILL MY CAT?

taraconnor777

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hi, I'm 73
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And I live alone
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am somewhat disabled and I have a wonderful
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cat ten or eleven yes old,a Burmese named Bella.SHe looks like a chocolate Siamese but her body is darker.HER FLEA MEDS WERE DUE.I read how Berfecto for dogs was killing them,and too late my home care worker bought the three month cat
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Berfecto(three months) and once we bought it,we could not take it back.(I blame the caregiver,but we gave my cat this before,and no side effects.)I was very angry,but we gave my cat the Berfecto again..
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I READ HERE THAAT
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BERFECTO ANTIFLEA IS HORRIBLEY KILLING DOGS WITH NUEROLOGICAL HORRORS.BUT I FOUND OUT THIS TOO LATE!WOULD THE VET BE RESPONSIBLE FOR SELLING ME A DANGEROUS MEDICATION IF MY POOR CAT DIES HORRIBLEY FROM THIS THREE MONTH BERFECTO FLEA MED?
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WHY ARE THEY,THE VET,NOT RESPONSIBLE IF MY CAT HAS HORRIBLE BRAIN DAMAGE??I would never have used this stuff if I had known this,and my Cat is very precious to me.My caregiver can be very dumb,or stubborn,and she's VERY CONFORMIST.We rarely agree. I'm NOT VERY CONFORMIST.BUT I'M NEVER giving my cat this crap again.
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CAN I SUE THE VET IF THIS BERFECTO GREATLY HARMS OR KILLS MY CAT?
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WHY would a vet be able to sell this stufff?OREGON is a pretty crazy state not the nature but the HUMANS.NOW ITS mechanized,"Gentrified,"very expensive,and the air and nature is destroyed by HUMANS,MINUS HUMANS,it used to be a beautiful state,not any more.PLEASE ADVISE.
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susanm9006

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Is your cat okay now? how long ago did the cat receive the medication? My guess is that the vet wouldn’t be held responsible but you would probably need to ask a lawyer that. I would certainly ask your vet to prescribe something different in the future.
 

kittenmittens84

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Flea medications that work on the nervous systems of fleas and ticks do have a small risk of causing neurological side effects, but I think that “horribly killing dogs” is quite the overstatement, and it’s good to also remember that it can be very difficult to figure out causation when an animal dies without a necropsy and other potentially invasive and expensive tests.

Here is a study of bravecto done on 1500 cats in Europe. None of the cats in the studied died from the medication (5 cats died, some were hit by cars and some had other illnesses) or had severe side effects.

Here is the EU’s regulatory assessment of bravecto in dogs where they did various trials to determine efficacy, safety, and dose. No dogs died or had serious reactions, it looks like some adverse events were reported but they were stomach upset or diarrhea from the chewable version of the drug.

if you don’t want to give your cat the same flea medication in the future then definitely look for a different one, but I don’t think it’s fair to harbor ill will toward your vet or caretaker for prescribing your cat a medication that, by all available metrics, is an effective and safe drug. Side effects are possible of course, but the vast vast majority of cats who take this don’t die from it which is good to keep in mind!

Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe by far the biggest danger with flea medications for cats is accidentally giving dog medication to a cat - some of them are toxic to cats but not dogs, and with others it may be the same drug but dogs get a much larger amount that would be able to harm a cat.
 

Willowy

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Bravecto for dogs is taken internally, while Bravecto for cats is applied externally. I assume the internal version caused too many side effects in cats when they did tests. So there's no point in reading up on the side effects in dogs and applying it to cats, because it's an entirely different version.

As a general rule, though, no, vets aren't held responsible for pets having bad reactions to meds.
 

dalya

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In my country, they don't take animals seriously. So we cannot sue vets if they kill our pets. I wish I could because I had one kitten who died at the age of 4 months because of wrong diagnosis and wrong medicine. when I confronted him he said "Oops! I thought it was such and such but it turns out it is actually such and such"
 

Antonio65

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Well, I think that nowhere in the world it is possible to hold a vet responsible for malpractice when a pet dies. You should prove that your pet died from their malpractice, that would involve necropsy and other exams that should be carried out by an independent doctor, and I think all of this is a long and very expensive procedure.
It doesn't work for humans, let alone for pets.

Unfortunately the responsibility is on us, when we choose the vet and when we agree to follow the therapies they prescribe without having an eye on what the vets are doing.
The only thing we can do, when of course it's too late, is spreading the voice so other pets don't die in the hands of those bad vets.

T taraconnor777 , I hope you kitties are fine.
 

Mr. Meow

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You can sue anyone, for anything, at any time, for any reason. Period. The law (at least in the USA) gives you that ability.
HOWEVER, the question is, will you win? In a case against a vet, you would have to prove that a vet intentionally did/gave something to your pet for the purpose of harming them, or that they made some type of medical error so negligently that it borders on stupidity.
The vet doesn't know if what's in those bottles is the correct mixture, or if the chemicals are off. The vet also can't predict an unseen, undiagnosed condition with your pet that may react poorly with the flea medication. Unfortunately, it's a risk that you choose to take by giving them any type of medicine. However, you always have the option to use flea shampoo and a flea comb if you're worried about the health of your pet.
So, can you sue the vet if something happens to your pet after giving them flea medicine? Yes, you absolutely can. Will you win? No.
 

Mrsty1203

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If you are in the U.S. If you feel you’re cat has had an adverse reaction you can and should report it to the FDA. There is a form to fill out specifically for adverse drug reactions. I did this for my cat that had a severe reaction to Convenia. The vet had to be contacted by the FDA and I let the vet know I reported the reaction, because she had ignored it. My cat had also had this drug prior with no reaction when she was younger. I still strongly felt what happened was from this drug, and the vet had given 2 doses 2 weeks apart and the reaction got stronger. She wanted to give a 3rd dose and I said NO! My cat was experiencing rapid head movements and got up on my lap to show me ... eventually it stopped.
 

FeebysOwner

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Hi. The key is with prescriptions, just like it is for human meds, there is material that comes with the medications/treatments that give all the most common (and even lesser common) side effects, contraindications, etc. While the vet (or a doctor) should share this information with you beforehand, it is also your responsibility to read that material and know the risks. And, there is even more information one can search on line for additional statistics/data.

The vet can tell you, from their own experience, and from the studies/data they read, what the odds are for a bad reaction. But, they cannot possibly know for sure how it might affect each individual pet. There are warnings for cats as well with regard to potential neurological issues, not just for dogs - for Bravecto. There is not likely any way to sue when one of the most unfortunate side effects occur since the warnings/data have been made public.
 

fionasmom

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Bravecto for dogs and cats is different as was noted. My GSD is almost 15 with a ton of medical conditions, all of which are being treated in various ways. He uses Bravecto with absolutely no problem as the latest issue was tapeworms when the spot on the neck flea preparations all evidently failed.

Over the years I have had two animals die at the vet's or immediately after a visit. The first was an older dog in weakened condition who probably was not a good candidate, in retrospect, for the surgery which killed him. The other was an older diabetic cat who went in for a fructosamine test and came home and immediately died. I never thought of suing anyone as the first certainly carried risks and the second was coincidental and circumstantial.

Before one of my current dog's surgeries at a specialty hospital in LA, they asked me if I wanted to approve code blue procedures if needed and quoted a cost. I did at the time; now I would not. To me, that explained that there was a risk and that I was accepting it.
 
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