I’ve had bad experiences with vets several times over the past few years and I am completely emotionally burnt out. I feel like I can’t trust any of them.
Last year one of my rabbits stopped eating. I brought her in immediately, since this is quickly fatal in rabbits, and the vet found an abscess in her mouth. Did surgery, sent us home—rabbit did not ever recover. I called repeatedly trying to get someone to see her and spent two days crying my eyes out trying to keep her alive with syringes of water and Critical Care and multiple visits to the emergency vet. She had a heart attack on the second visit and died in front of me. The vet there said “oh, you would have never been able to give her enough water with the syringe.” So I’ve felt a lot of guilt about that and a lot of resentment. I wish when they found the abscess they were honest and either sent me to a specialist or told me she would likely be unable to survive surgery in her weakened state. They did it anyway, then ignored my calls for help when the poor rabbit slowly declined.
My dog started limping last year. He was 8 and large breed so we were concerned and brought him to this specialist who wanted $5000 to fix his ACL. She did multiple X-rays, and didn’t find the had bone cancer that was degenerating his limb until a month later. We had to call someone to euthanize him at home. If we knew he had bone cancer sooner, we would have euthanized him earlier and forgone the $5000 surgery.
I currently own four cats and a rabbit. Our rabbit vet is great—she’s a specialist and I trust her opinion. I called her sobbing my eyes out because he wouldn’t eat (of course thinking of my rabbit that died last year) and she talked me down and helped me get him to eat. She’s honest and up front and cared enough about my rabbit to call me back at 10pm. I wish she would see cats.
I’ve had less success with a cat vet. One examined my oldest cat (who had gingivitis as a stray and has most of his teeth removed) and said his gums look like “raw meat”. I explained he had two major dental surgeries, so it’s probably from all the teeth pulling, and she insisted on an antibiotic that did nothing. I only brought him in for a routine check-up. He is hyperthyroid and well-controlled on generic meds, but she says name brand works better. We tried name brand at a lower dose at her suggestion and his thyroid hormone shot up.
They’re trying to charge me $800-$1700 for a cleaning for my other cat, a male who was also a stray. I said my old vet will do it for $350 and they made me feel like a cheap asshole for going with the other vet. “Well if that’s the care you want.” Doesn’t matter how much you pay—I know from experience they will still possibly miss things and your animal will die.
I’m trying to do the best I can for my animals. I respect veterinarians and the work they do, but I’m frustrated and I feel like I can’t trust them.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/k1b4z9/ive_had_multiple_bad_experiences_with_vets_and/
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