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

sorry to hear the trouble you have
some of the out of hours vets are not experienced a lot and some just out of collage
sort of thing happen to me but not with the same results as you
sprinkle got ill few years back and all the woman vet was interested in some thing completely different to what he was taking if for and kepted going on about he had to be done.
so she got a ear full from me and i told her if you do anything to him other than what he is here for i will sue you,
and was told to make him comferable untill alan came in the next day.
anyway it was his water works had a stone in and couldnt wee.
when i told alan what went on he had a right go at this so called vet, the nurse vicky said the air was blue.
as you can imagine the other vet is not there anymore.

Originally Posted by Elena

She's just gone to another Vets do make the same "difference"....Unfortunately for us they are "covering" each other. The best thing is to follow your gut instinct, to speak to other breeders/owners and to get a second opinion. (Well in my experience a few years ago - second opinion has not been given as I refused to disclose to a second Vet the first opinion in order to get an independent piece of mind....Ridiculous!)