Originally Posted by Nina Cole

Its been three weeks since I lost my beloved dog Zak, and I would not wish our experience on anyone. I just pray to God that my poor dog was unaware what was going on.

He collapsed two weeks ago and was rushed into our vets surgery on emergency. Our regular vet was on holiday, so we saw a woman who had not the slightest compassion, or, idea, what was wrong.

His gums were white and his mouth was cold. He was in a collapsed state and could hardly move. After 40 minutes she suggested that we take him home! It was then that I suggested that he was in fact dieing, and only then did she put a needle in his stomach to discover that he was bleeding internally.

We knew that the kindest thing was to put him to sleep, but he was so bad by this time, that she could not even find a vein. He was pulled this way and that, and eventually I asked for another vet to attend him. At last they gave him a sedative, and decided to inject the fatal dose into his heart. They could not even locate his heart, and after a further 20 minutes decided to inject the fatal dose into his liver!

There was no compassion at all, in fact I would say they were barbarians that just wanted us out of the surgery as quickly as possible. They did not understand why we wanted to be there for our dog to the end, whatever the circumstances.

We are now awaiting his ashes, and would urge anyone reading this, to ensure that their vet is understanding and competent. I would not wish our experience on anyone.

Originally Posted by carol

thing that got me elena we knew was wrong with him and we knew what the treatment was but as normal you get these young vets out of collage thing they know everything and dont.

Originally Posted by Jenny Olley

Unfortunately you are quite right complaints get you nowhere. A friend of mine took his 15 month GSD to the vets saying he was ill, he thought he possibly had a torsion, he was told there was nothing wrong with the dog and to take him home. He continued to get worse so a couple of hours later he took him back, saw a different vet, who diagnosed torsion and was operated on immediately. He had to leave the dog in over night, when he rung the following morning he was told his dog had died, then that he hadn't. Then he got a call 5 minutes later to say in fact he had died during the night. He quite rightly was very upset, put in written complaints, but never got anywhere.