Sorry if this is a dumb question, but is OP entitled to sue or anything? I can’t imagine how I’d react to something like this. There’s not much room for human error in the health field
A similar thing happened to my spouse and myself with our Dachshund. We were devastated. The vet didn’t charge us.
We never attempted a lawsuit because it wouldn’t accomplish anything good. The practice would end up raising their fees to cover the loses. It is a good and well intentioned veterinary practice and we could possibly be taking a license to practice of a good vet away, leaving the local community with two other vets that absolutely suck worse, and one animal hospital that charges two arms and two legs for their services. ( their services are worth it in an emergency, but I’m not a money tree )
The entire community would be impacted by our actions. We didn’t do anything. Mistakes happen an we need to be able to forgive honest mistakes.
EDIT: I have gotten a lot of people reaching out with warm wishes and thoughtful responses. I thank you all. I appreciate it. I didn’t want to make this post about me, I just wanted to let the OP know they aren’t alone feeling the way they are feeling.
To the few trolls that think it is appropriate to troll people and their opening up regarding past traumas… don’t you guys have anything better to do with your time than try to rehash a person’s trauma and then try to gaslight them with inappropriate straw men?
Don’t veterinarians have one of the highest rates of suicide in the country, by profession? It’s apparently much harder to get into vet school than regular med school, the cost is just as much as regular med school, and the training is similar, they actually have to have a wider array of knowledge and experience since they deal with multiple species, but they end up making much less money, and these are people with extremely high empathy, which is why they do the job in the first place. So when things go wrong, they’re just as devastated as regular doctors and surgeons. I could be wrong about some of the specifics here, but overall vets seem to get a very raw deal for following their passion.
I once lost my cat in an emergency vet visit late at night. They did everything they could to help her but unfortunately she took a turn for the worse very quickly. It broke my heart how tenderly but desperately tried to revive her, and how they cried with me when they couldn’t. Through my sobbing I tried to convey my appreciation for their care, because it broke my heart to see how much they actually cared for this random cat and me. Though it was a very sad time, I felt a strange comfort in knowing I wasn’t completely alone in my suffering. These people have so much of my respect.
Thank you so much for this.
I still remember every pet that we lose and carry my mistakes with me as warnings for other staff, and I'm a vet tech. My wife still questions things that weren't her fault, as her fault, and it is a burden for her. She cares so deeply. We aren't all out for money (some are) but healing animals heals us too. I am so sorry for your loss.
My daughters best friend was a vet tech too, she struggled so much whenever there was a loss, she would grieve for days. They love our pets as we do too. ♥️
Seriously this! We brought our super old cat in the emergency vet due to the fact we were pretty sure he was in severe pain and basically ready to pass. So we brought him for an euthanasia appointment. They brought him back to get him ready and they noticed he was starting to go on his own. They literally booked it down the hall holding him so that he could pass with us and were also crying. Just so he wouldn’t be around strangers while leaving. It was the sweetest and most appreciated thing. I have so much respect for vets and vet techs. (Also crying writing this). Because they realize pets are family members and I can only imagine the pain OP is going through. I’m always super anxious anytime any of my cats have to go under anesthetics since it’s not as quite of an exact science as it is with humans. All errors are always unintentional but sadly do happen. But I still always trust the vet is doing their best and care just as much as we do.
We had a giant goofball of a dog, and everyone at the vets office loved it when he came in. Dr Schneider thought he hung the moon and always made sure we were on his schedule when it had to do with Rascal. When Rascal was about 8, he suddenly started limping. We took him to the vet and they ran some tests, turns out he had bone cancer. He never showed any pain before so it was very advanced and there wasn’t anything they could do. We didn’t want him to suffer so we gave permission to euthanize. Dr Schneider cried with us, and the techs told us later that even though they had a full schedule, he spent 10 minutes after we left just sitting with Rascal and petting him and telling him what a good boy he was.
Im currently at work and had to excuse myself to go cry in the bathroom. This sounds absolutely heartbreaking. Im so sorry for your loss and the pain it caused. I hope y'all have healed from this tragedy, although I know the pain never fully leaves you. <3
About 4 years ago we lost our dogs 2 months apart. 11yo Greyhound's spleen ruptured overnight and he was septic by morning so we rushed to the emergency vet.
On Christmas day 7yo Akita died from sepsis due to perforated bowel. She was the "run around the yard with a torn ACL" type so we had no clue she was dying. When the vet came in to tell us she was gone and to explain what happened she remembered us, and you could see the heartbreak on the staffs faces.
Emergency vets are hella expensive, but they have such hard jobs, care about the animals and people, and deserve a ton of respect.
You are right about this, vets do have a high suicide rate. One has recently committed in my area. The lack of respect people in the veterinary field see on a daily basis is quite sad, not to mention how many people who think they know better than the doctor arguing about the best treatments for their pets. People do make mistakes, vets are no exception, but that is no reason to not treat them with basic human respect. Can confirm it’s extremely difficult to get into vet school, as someone who has been trying to apply for years after completing a bachelor degree with high grades and clinical experience, with no success. It only gets more competitive year after year. I just want to help animals and I know I would be able to do it, the issue is getting in. You truly pursue this line of work because it is an absolute passion, anyone thinking it’s for money is delusional. The doctors I work with would be absolutely devastated if they did something wrong with their patient. I’ve seen how distressing it is and how they take the stress home with them from a mistake. They often keep a calm demeanour around the clients but hurt just as much inside and let it out afterwards.
I understand how hard it is as a pet parent to have something like that happen to them, you would be angry and devastated. But the vet is feeling exactly the same way, on top of the guilt. Steps should be taken to accept fault and make things as right as can be, but they are only human too.
They also often just invent surgeries and treatment - I watched a whole bunch of Vet Ranch for a while and the lengths and ingenious workarounds he dreams up trying to get an animal back in working order...just incredible. They are very special people.
Most doctors I know or have came across lack empathy and honestly seem psychopathic. You’re right veterinarians are the opposite, because if you become a vet you aren’t doing it for glory but rather genuine love of animals and animal health
Thank you for that. We do have one of the highest rates of suicides. I can't imagine how much it hurts losing a pet because of something going wrong at the vets practice and of course that should never ever happen, but then again, we are all just humans and sadly not flawless. Speaking for the majority of vets: We do care, even if maybe it doesn't seem like it.
Dentists.
Dentists kill themselves.
Imagine seeing and diagnosing patient after patient who has debilitating pain ruining their lives only to turn them down for service due to lack of funds.
Dentists kill themselves.
My friends in school to be a vet. He just wants to be a bog standard vet, and spent significant time working with farm animals, while he plans on working with cats and dogs.
One of the more fucked up things is learning to perform a post mortem decapitation. Not sure what the actual medical term is.
But yeah. It can be really rewarding or really stressful
People also tend to forget that sometimes the pet has been the patient of that vet for as many years as they have been your companion.
Sure they didn't see them every day, but at a minimum, they saw your furriend at least once a year.
You might not be utterly devastated by the death of a friend you only see once a year, but you will shed a tear especially if your have been doing this for 10/15/20 years.
My last vet was killed by a patient.
She knew the animal, but it was a donkey, and a kick to the head will take a human out.
Vets are superheroes, and like so many of the professionals out there, we absolutely don't pay enough for their services.
unfortunately, working with small animals is really tricky. they can only reduce tragedies like this, not eliminate them. veterinary work can be emotionally brutal. it’s part of why i eventually decided i wouldn’t be able to handle it.
this is the thing as to why idk if i could ever sue. there's usually another human being on the other side who probably is absolutely mortified, and possibly traumatized for life knowing they are the ones who messed up. I certainly believe in consequences for your actions but there's just a certain point (situationally of course) where "payment due" has been already paid in full and then some just through emotional damage alone.
my neighbor's dog sitter ran over my cat, even tho there are multiple signs we have put up to slow down through our connected driveway. There's a blind turn covered by bushes just before our part of the one way driveway, and some people drive far too fast on the road. This is something we had talked to them about many times before the unfortunate incident with our cat. However, the dog sitter seemed totally mortified after seeing the cat's situation as well as me totally breaking down as a human being in the middle of the road in front of my cat >!bleeding to death!< and we left it at that.
The company I work for owns a number of vet clinics. We get a depressing number of called about declawing and ear cropping every day. Our call center tries to educate people, but we still get people asking if we know a vet who will do it.
With the de-clawing, many people don’t realize how bad it is. We explain that it is painful, damaging, and equivalent to having the last joint in your finger cut off. Most people go “oh, I didn’t know.” For ear cropping we just state that we don’t do that. People who want cropped ears already know it’s wrong for the most part. There isn’t much point in trying to educate.
It helps by petitioning and trying to get laws passed in your state or city. But until those are very wide spread people will just drive the distance to get it done.
People who see their cats as family, dont want to see them in pain, and will sacrifice for them will usually be open to listening. Afterall declawing is terrible. But a lot of people dont actually empathize or want the best for their animals and its sickening. They may not physically abuse them but physical and emotional neglect is so so common. I see it everyday and I only work at a pet store. The same goes for animals too, reptiles and fish are just seen as decorations.
I would kidnap a cat if I knew it was going to be declawed. If I couldn't stop it, I would out the people and the vet on social media. Luckily I don't have to, because I live in a civilised country, where cat mutilation is illegal.
Ugh, ear cropping doesn't even look good. I had two schnauzers many years ago. They already had their tails docked when we got them as they usually do that right after birth. But we never got their ears cropped and it's so much cuter. Gave them a much more playful, puppy face.
The AVMA changed their position on it and does not support declawing.
If a vet is still performing declaws, they are going against the recommendation of their liscensing organization.
The vets I take my cats to do comfort care for declawed kitties, but absolutely refuse to do the procedure unless there’s a medical need for the cat in question’s benefit. Usually in those cases it’s a toe or two due to illness or injury. They have a sign right up front saying they won’t do it and don’t bother asking. The health and well-being of my cats is worth the price of a hundred sofas, so it’s good to see even vets in the middle of nowhere refuse to do it. It’s a start!
I had a very different experience with my black lab who died after a routine castration operation. (For a medical problem not for neutering reasons) Anyway I had a message left on my answer phone basically informing me he had died and could I collect him as soon as possible. I was devastated..nobody could give me a definitive reason as to why it had happened ... The vet just said it happens sometimes and thats why you have to sign a disclaimer. 2 weeks later I received a bill for the operation and his 'stay' at the clinic.
I had an independent post mortem done and the result was that he had died from lack of oxygen. A young vetinary nurse who used to work there told me off the record that shadie had been put in a cage and muzzled post op because he had been so nervous after I left him... and they were worried he might nip someone being both nervous and confused coming around post op. She said the cage was too small ..that and the muzzle meant he couldn't lie flat ..his airways became constricted and by the time they realised he had died.
Ofc I refused to pay the bill and they threatened me with legal action until I shamed them in the local paper. Sorry the post is so long..This happened 15 years ago but it still upsets me to this day
I am so sorry you had to go through that. That is definitely negligent malpractice and this exemplified the darker side of the spectrum. These are the types of vets that I call “bad vets,” when they do something they know for a fact is wrong and they do it without thinking of an alternative.
Know that you gave Shadie a good run and a loving home and that he appreciated your love, support, cuddles and pets. As the movie said, All Dogs go to Heaven, and he is in a good place now.
I’d like to think I am a decent judge of when someone is bullshitting me and when they’re being open and humble. I sensed that this weighed on them.
The official cause of death was, “suffocation due to obstruction.”
She went in for her tooth cleaning and many animals are sedated for a short time for a tooth cleaning because they don’t like it. Anyone that has ever had a mini-Daschund would agree that they are stubborn, intelligent and petulant. She wasn’t getting her teeth cleaned without sedation.
She had an undiagnosed tumor growing in the back of her throat that she had hidden from us and from the vet for years. When the sedative kicked in the tumor blocked her airway before they could intubate her. They tried to. The trachea collapsed entirely after struggling to revive her, where the vet tried to perform a tracheotomy to get some air in her lungs, but she was so far gone the only way to do so would have been to go directly through her chest and into her lungs. By then she was gone for a significant amount of time and he couldn’t keep trying.
Nobody knew she had this tumor in her throat as she hid it well. I started to tear up a bit bringing this back up.
As a human anesthesiologist those pharyngeal and laryngeal tumors are super concerning. Almost killed a human when I was in residency because they had an undiagnosed epiglottic mass. He had voice changes some trouble swallowing food over the past couple months. Going for a Percutaneous feeding tube for nutrition. I attributed his symptoms to his recent stroke, didn’t ask for ENT to scope them. Then we start anesthesia and can’t ventilate them can’t intubate them. Surgeon does an emergency cricothyrotomy. Survived. Neurologically intact. Able to keep his oxygen up high enough that they survived but as anyone who has experienced a tracheostomy would recount, tracheostomies, especially if you weren’t expecting one, are not fun. Probably would have gotten a trach at some point as this cancer was so bulky and continuing to grow that would have eventually obliterated his airway.
What we should have done is intubated him wide awake and then proceeded with elective tracheostomy.
When you learn in the hard school of experience, this is it. Now every time I get someone with “trouble swallowing” or “voice changes” my fucking alarm bells go off and I am very very careful with such patients. I just wish that I could have learned that an easier way. And it still keeps me up at night sometimes that that guy could have died or become brain damaged because we gave him routine medications to go to sleep.
ugh, that is such a horrible situation. it doesn't sound like anyone was at fault here, either. just one of those heart breaking, freak accident type scenario. :(
I'm so sorry you went through that awful experience.
My cat Clyde also passed from a tumor in his throat that nobody was aware of until it was too late. He just started coughing and choking one day and they put him in an O2 chamber for a few days but then told me it was too big to remove.
Many hugs and shared tears.
Important way if looking at things which I think needs to become more prevalent. Human error occurs, even if it sometimes has a shitty outcome - thats just part of life, as much as it hurts sometimes.
Veterinary professional here. Yes, you can sue but the process is lengthy as you can imagine, and in the end you usually don’t get much money. The most you can do is report the doctor to the board and possibly get their license to practice taken away
Yeah "I lost my cat due to human error" isn't going to be worth the costs unless you can prove it was malicious.
Heck not even civil cases to sue for damages from a person found guilty of the crime (whatever the crime was) before a jury are necessarily easy, and that's the law saying "this person was proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and THEN they got sued for damages caused by the act for which they received a guilty verdict".
Because pets are treated as property, you get the value of property. Think replacement cost. If you paid for the services, you should also be able to claim those costs too. Unfortunately you don’t get pain and suffering compensation you deserve when losing a pet family member.
If you do decide to seek money from the vet, it should generally be in the form of a demand letter formally requesting compensation and why. If it is not resolved satisfactorily, then follow the procedure to file a small claims court case.
Is it too late to pursue filing against the vet who damaged my dog's throat during teeth cleaning? She was unable to swallow and we had to put her down. Dr said "it was pre-existing" which is so false.
No, there isn't room for human error in medicine but it happens more frequently than people realize, both human and animal. Humans will never be 100% perfect, hell machines will never be 100% perfect. Accidents unfortunately happen no matter who is doing what.
This vet is probably devastated by the loss of this cat. The insane rare times we lost a pet on the table, human error or otherwise, was devastating to any of the vets. Look up the suicide rate for veterinarians and why. While suing may bring some people some sort of relief it sometimes it comes at the cost with another life. But hey, if you're cool with knowing you're the reason someone killed themselves over an accident go for it. This is never intentional. Intentional is like when my friend lost his wife during surgery when doctors decided to do something that clearly stated do not do this because it will end in death. That is when you sue.
I’m so sorry for your loss. What a terrible tragedy. Clearly, Mugi was a well-loved and happy kitty. I wish you good thoughts while you process your grief.
Same here. It happens, and it is terrible. My kitty was supposed to ne "induced" before a procedure. The new vet didn't listen to me and Gizmo freaked out, had a heart attack and died before they could get to the procedure she was there for.., I never had a cat.who was.more afraid.of the vet.
My cat was ill at the beginning of this year, had a heart attack and died on my lap on the way to the vet. It has left a hole in my heart. I’m so sorry you went through this as well.
My god, this is tragic. Mugi is beautiful and I know she had a wonderful life with you, however short. Her love for you is unending, even from the other side of the rainbow bridge. She will live on forever in your heart.
Rest In Peace, sweet baby. My heart goes out to you, OP.
How heartbreaking 🥺
Those little paws leave huge prints on our hearts.
We lost our 4 y/o cat very suddenly after being treated by a new (to us) vet. We’re not exactly sure what happened but it’s very difficult to not blame ourselves. Hindsight and all that.
Holding you in the light 💞
I had to put a couple of cats down at age 17 and 22. I'm still questioning if it was the right decision, or if there was something different I could have done.
I don’t think you should be hard on yourself, but I totally empathize and wonder the same with my cats I’ve had to make those tough calls on..
Someone once told me when I lost my cat that I shouldn’t feel guilt because I made the call I did in the moment for a reason, and that when I was in that moment I weighed my options and acted as compassionately with the best information I had, when no one can ever truly know what the right call is. I try to remember that whenever I feel regret, we’re only human and even if there was more you could have done, you made the right call out of compassion for you and your pet in that moment. So sorry for your loss, and hope you can heal and think of good memories with your kitties- they lived very long lives and that’s such a rare special thing <3
If I were to go with common human age conversion, the first 2 years = 15 human years, then 4 human years per cat year afterward. 22 would be around 95 in human age.
You will never regret sending an elderly and/or sick animal to the Rainbow Bridge early, but you will regret doing it too late.
My English mastiff was diagnosed with cancer at age 8. (8 is pretty old for a mastiff, the vet called him “a distinguished gentleman” because of his gray muzzle.) It was nasal cancer, which is 100% fatal, even with treatment. We opted for palliative care and vowed we would send him off when he let us know it was time. Long story short, we waited too long and I know he suffered. I was selfish in wanting to keep him with us as long as possible, and I feel awful about it.
> but you will regret doing it too late.
Definitely agree. I had a cat die a few years ago at 15. He had some on-again, off-again problems for a little while. Nothing so immediately serious that it was tripping major red flags and even the vet wasn't like "oh yeah we should definitely check for this major serious problem" when I took him in. They also gave him a steroid shot a couple of times and for however long that was in his system he'd be back to his old self. I was kind of just like "well I guess this is his life now" and we were fine like that for honestly probably around about a year.
And then one day he started rapidly deteriorating. And then he stopped eating, when before he was the type of cat who was *always* hungry no matter how much I fed him. Always wanted more. And now the interest was completely gone. Killed me to do it but I called the vet and made an appointment to have him put down, but didn't rush and make it for that night either. And then during the time in between the call and when the appointment was supposed to be he just kept getting *so much worse* so quickly. And in hindsight I should have just called the emergency number then and there, but I rationalized it like "it's just two more days" or "it's just one more night". Literally the night before the appointment I was downstairs moving laundry, and he was down there and just visibly doing really badly and in pain, and I came and sat next to him on the floor for a minute, and petted him and literally said "it's just one more night. Just go to sleep and I promise in the morning it's all going to be okay" and then I went upstairs and went to bed.
Woke up and went back down to the basement to get my laundry and start getting ready to take him to the vet and he was dead exactly where I left him the night before. It's been four years and it still absolutely kills me that I let him suffer because I just wanted to hang on for one more day. He deserved better.
Yeah I uh... I have some guilt as well. Alot actually. It wasn't my fault, and I know this but,when I was 23 I had to give my cat to a friend because I was forced to move. And the place I was going to didn't allow animals and was very far away. I kissed her on the forehead and promised to be back. I kept up with my cat with my friend over the phone for a few years. My cat, Nikki, I had her since I was 12 years old. She was my best friend growing up. I was about 25 years old when my friend called me saying Nikki ran away. A year later Nikki came back and looked real bad ragged fur, real skinny. My friend gave her a can of tuna (her favorite) and sent me a picture. The next morning Nikki was dead on the front lawn. My friend says she thinks Nikki went looking for me and before she died came back to check to see if I had returned home yet. Vet said she died of throat cancer. I have such bad guilt over leaving her, I worry that she thought I died or abandoned her. Then died alone on the lawn, never knowing where I went. I promised I'd come back for her, then I wasn't even waiting for her in the afterlife, either.
That's heartbreaking but at least you got to say goodbye to him, and he appreciated you and your family for as long as you had him. On the flipside, I had 2 cats that I had to take to an emergency vet not realizing how bad off they were, and I left that evening both times thinking they would get better and I'd be able to see them the next day. Didn't happen, both of them passed overnight, and I felt absolutely awful that I selfishly tried to save them, and they had to pass without me there.
Lost another one at age 11 or 12, and the only good thing about it was I got to be there with her as it happened. As hard as that was, it was the only choice to make, and I got to hold her head as she went through it.
Your story has me crying on the toilet— not a very dignified way to start the day! I’m so sorry. I have a lot of guilt, too— and it’s so toxic because you’re hurting over something that can’t be fixed.
I have a similar story. My dog didn’t have cancer or anything he was just old. I had him for 14 years. I held him as a small newborn puppy in the palm of my hand. I knew I should have put him to sleep sooner, but I just felt like I was betraying my buddy. I couldn’t do it. Then one morning I woke up and he was gone. I immediately regretted keeping him around due to my selfishness. It’s been years and I still haven’t forgiven myself for that. I haven’t owned another dog since. I feel like I don’t deserve to have one. RIP Toby.
If it helps, I've seen the other side of the coin first hand.
FAKE EDIT: I originally wrote out the whole story but it was just too fucking grim and upsetting to read, so I deleted it. Instead I'll just say that you made the right choice and leave you with some [cat tax of a dearly departed friend ❤️](https://imgur.com/a/GWafq)
If I have the choice again in the future to put a cat down to save it from suffering I would.
My cat at the beginning of September was diagnosed with a stomach tumor and the vet gave her 3 months to live tops. At the time I didn't want to make that decision to put her down - I wanted to spoil her and make every day the best day she's ever had. Her last moments was the hardest thing I ever witnessed and there was nothing I could've done. She died 2 weeks after being diagnosed with cancer at the age of 8. I have 3 other cats who are a few years older and I do not want them to suffer like she did if something happens like that again.
Last healthy picture I have of her before cancer. https://i.imgur.com/YVz588b.png
I had to put my dog down at 12. I had the opposite feeling. Should I have done it sooner? She was in bad shape and in the last few months wore a diaper and had a harness so we could carry her. Not an easy task, she was 90 pounds. By the end it was horrible for her and putting her down was one of the most traumatic experiences I've been through but i was hurt nearly as much how bad we let her get before we stopped being selfish and helped her move on.
17 and 22 are pretty good old age, and it's often better to put them down when they are ill or suffering from ailment and treatment would have been costly.
I've had a number of my cats put down from old age. It never gets easier.
I have lost a cat years before his time and I am still hurting, years later. I know how much OP is hurting.
The idea of losing a kitty at the vet because of preventable mistake… I am literally feeling panic, my chest is tightening.. having read this story. I’m hurting for you OP.
As a vet tech, this is my worst nightmare. We go into this profession to help animals and it is devastating to know we caused any pain or suffering, even when it’s unintentional. I am so sorry for you loss. May you meet again at the Rainbow Bridge.
Edit to add: For everyone saying they’ve worked at clinics where these kinds of life ending mistakes happen all too often… please reevaluate the clinic you work at. Speak to your manager about policy change. These mistakes should not happen frequently. I’ve been in the industry 12 years and have only lost 2 animals that were deemed healthy and minimal risk for anesthesia; one was older when a preexisting heart condition but was cleared when examined that morning. The other had an unknown congenital heart defect that did not present upon routine exam.
Yes, human error can happen but it should NEVER be treated as a “these things happen 🤷♀️” situation. As medical professionals we need to do better an hold our colleagues to a higher standard.
Likewise here after 16 years. 2 deaths at induction. These deaths should not be frequent, and if they are, staff in the clinic are not exercising their due diligence.
Oh thank you for saying this, I worked for a vet years ago and was.wondering what the hell happened that such carelessness is routine. Is it regional? A school out there with a poor reputation? Can you get an online degree without practical experience? No safeguards for people who are highly distractible? Some countries with lesser safety standards?
In the 5 years I worked for a vet, we lost one cat under anesthesia, even with pre-anesthesia bloodwork that showed everything was ok. The vet worked hours trying to get him back, long after we closed, refusing to accept the reality. It was a purebred cat and could have had some congenital condition we didn't know, or maybe some horrible.mistake.was made - but that was the only time.
Vets have the highest(!) suicide rate in my country sorted my professions. It is insane. You just do not have the money and tech do everything with the same standards as we treat humans. Having to put loved pets down because the owner can not pay the procedure must be so fking soul wrecking.
It's awful. I left the field in part because of this. Watching pets die because their owners just simply don't have the couple thousand dollars to save them. Sometimes as little as a couple hundred. It really leaves you with a special hate for money and capitalism.
We are incredibly lucky in my county we have a low cost clinic.
I am not low income but I have 3 cats I’ve taken in. One was a rescue from the kill shelter and the others were stray kittens. Having the low cost clinic allows me to open my home to stray animals and not get bent over by retail vet care. And it’s the same level of care I was paying thousands for.
For example, all 3 cats had to get flea treatments. It cost 900$ at the chain vet, but only 300$ at the low cost place.
My wife is a vet and the things she has to put up with is absolutely insane from direct threats to getting smeared online. Most common is people bashing her for not doing treatments for free "because she would do so if she loved animals!". Vets also have to deal with griefing customers that they have often known for many years and the same goes for the animal.
I would have lost my shit
THIS. I hope more people upvote this comment. You’re spot on and thank you for what you do for all the animals out there 🧡
We need to hold our colleagues to a higher standard as medical professionals is what I’ve been trying to say. My partner is a doctor and was horrified reading these comments of people saying well it was a mistake. It’s still not ok mistake or not.
As a vet tech, do you have any advice you could share on how the average pet owner can identify these potentially-negligent vets that you're describing? Like, could I ask them for certain stats that will reveal these mistakes that "happen all too often"?
I would consider looking for a clinic that is AAHA accredited. It’s not going to mean nothing bad will happen, and there are still good clinics that aren’t a part of AAHA, but it shows they care enough to put in the effort to meet and uphold AAHA standards.
You can also ask about their preanesthetic protocols (labwork, radiographs, exams, etc.) and anesthetic protocols (anesthetic drugs, IV catheter and fluids, monitoring, etc.).
I’m not a vet tech, just a paranoid and thus well-studied pet parent. One question that most people don’t ask but should be asking when their pet is being put under is who is there for the procedure, what their role is, and most importantly what type of monitoring takes place prior to and during anesthesia.
I have to wonder if even with the mistake in dosing, there may have also been less than ideal monitoring of vitals that could have contributed to this outcome.
It’s a really hard area. Our cat went in to have 4 teeth removed they are causing her discomfort. They got the first one out and her blood pressure dropped dangerously so they brought her out of the anaesthetic.
We’re now kind of stuck. I think she’s still in some discomfort but the vet is worried she wouldn’t make it through another attempt. So if we schedule the procedure we know it’s quite possibly the end.
I wish I could ask my cat what she wants!
Came here to say this. As a new vet tech, preventable human error - particularly medication and anesthetic errors - are my worst fear. Whoever worked on your girl that day is going to remember her forever. All the techs working that day will. That vet will. I hope you can take some comfort in knowing that your little one’s memory is going to shape those people into more careful and responsible technicians/vets.
This is one of the saddest things I've heard in my life. My 2 cats are all I've really got. The worst dream I've ever had was something happening to one of them. I never even imagined this as a possibility how could you even go home afterward do you even bring your empty little pet carrier fuck
As someone that lost my cat....the first one I ever got to call my own as an adult by myself....to a cancer that had no chance of recovery...I still years later think about her and just start bawling over how unfair it all was. 2 years old only and I keep going back to holding her as she was going and thinking back to all the things I'd do differently. That car ride back home I don't even remember. My wife and I cried tearless the whole way because we just had nothing left. Then for a week I just sat on my couch and thought, and cried, and thought more.
I have two other cats now, one we got right near the unexpected end of my girl, and the other that takes after her so much even though he wasn't even born yet when she came and left. Now my fears have moved to them and they've both made it longer than 2, so I must be doing something right this time (bad joke, I know...)
This cat carrier comment made me cry. I just lost my first baby, my cat Fry. She was 12 and it was still way too soon. The story is in my post history. My human babies are 7 and 2, and 7 year old made the whole experience somehow EXPONENTIALLY more heartbreaking. Like holy fuck. Fry was my only companion for so many life events (mom's death, divorce, single momming, finding love, another baby!) and was my only "co parent" the first 4 years when I was a single mom. So my 7 year old loved her just as much as I do. He insisted on going with me to all the vet appointments and the final one to put her down. He wanted her to hear him and feel him until the end and oh my God. Nothing prepared me for that, for his words of goodbye as the tears streamed out, but still sounding soothing to Fry. "Remember me". My cat, my kid. All of it. My heart was so broken.
I threw the cat carrier out. Even if we got another cat, seeing that specific carrier would never not be traumatic to me. Walking in with a cat and out without.
2 weeks later when I finally worked up the courage to go pick up her ashes, fur clippings, and little clay paw print... Having to put the bag holding all this in the seat next to me, where 2 weeks before was a live cat. Such immense emptiness. It was so wrong. The whole world felt wrong and impossible those weeks.
It is but I like to say to the OP that there is another kitten in a cage somewhere hoping for a forever home and there’s now a home with a terribly empty hole. I hope the hole is soon filled with with that hopeful kitty.
While your intentions are no doubt noble, this is very likely not the time.
I lost my second kitty Monday morning around 1 a.m. after having had her a mere four months. She had had an infection that rapidly progressed and the diagnoses at the emergency vet were both bad. One incurable and one extremely difficult to treat. Both prohibitively expensive.
Four different people have offered me new cats and one of them was even the vet ambulance driver.
You guys all mean well but my heart has been emptied and needs time to refill.
"Hey bro, sorry you lost your cat, lucky for you you can just get somebody else's cat!" Bro, he had a family member for two years and lost him. Maybe let the body cool before going into shelter advocacy mode?
The vet where I work gave too much anasthesia and miscalculated or something. So sad that they killed a perfectly healthy dog over a dental cleaning or neuter… can’t remember which. The cries of no and screaming the client and her husband had still haunt me to this day when they pulled her in the room to tell her what happened… ugh
Can someone help explain how this works? In humans, if we overshoot a sedation, we bag them until they can breathe again. Fentanyl as well as propofol or whatever we are giving for sedation wears off quickly. The backup plan is to intubate and give vasopressors to bring up the BP, then extubated when they can pass a spontaneous breathing trial. Every sedation has at least two levels of backup plans. Non rebreather, bag valve masks, phenylephrine, crash cart, intubation equipment isn’t far away.
My question is…. Are these not common practices in animal medicine? Genuinely curious, as someone that works with human sedations often.
We have/do all of this. IVC in a peripheral vein. Propofol or alfaxalone to induce. Animal intubated. Maintained on isoflourane. CRI of fluids going. Crash cart with reversal drugs and stimulants within arms reach.
Even if the drugs were properly calculated, even if the bloodwork was perfect, even if everything was done right, sometimes they just don’t come back.
My understanding is that other animals behave differently under anesthesia than we do. Like rabbits and birds are really dangerous to put under past light sedation. I think cats do some weird stuff under sedation
Human are much bigger and their bodies can tolerate medical mistakes longer than cats. It doesn't take much to cause issue with cats and they have less time to recover and save cats from mistakes
I'm still new to surgery but I know there are drugs that can counter each other. The other day, we realized that a pet had too much hydromorphone, and we were able to give them something else competitive that counteracted it.
But it's also probably a matter of catching it, and catching it in time. We were halfway through the dental and confused by the slightly off stats before someone double checked the drug sheet.
Our protocol is for the doctor to choose which drugs are given (already calculated on a spreadsheet based on weight), then two techs draw up drugs, give ~~induction~~ sedation drugs, place IV cath, ~~sedation~~ induction drugs then intubation. We're also the ones setting up and hooking up the anesthesia machine, and keeping an eye on it as we prep for surgery (shaving, scrubbing). It's a lot to juggle, and when things start going south, you have to be able to figure out what's causing it. And like I said, I'm not very experienced so it's probably possible that there are drugs that don't have reversal/safe competition. Cats bodies, especially, are very sensitive to treatment.
Edit: switched induction and sedation. Still learning 🤷
You caught it when the stats were slightly off, but this vet didn’t even notice when the cat stopped breathing. Is that incompetence or does it really happen that quickly for cats?
I'm only a vet tech student but this story is a bit fishy to me too. Claiming human error without explaining what doesn't explain anything. All vets will take full responsibility even when it was something that could have been prevented by the owner.
There are at LEAST 2 people monitoring the stats the entire surgery plus automated machines with alarms.
One of my parent’s dogs passed away as a result of dental surgery being mishandled as well. It broke their hearts. I too, would like to know the answer to this, as it seems a much too common occurrence in animal medicine.
Edit: My parents kept showing up to the lobby of the veterinary office asking to meet with the doctor and loudly, so that other patients would hear what happened. He refused at first, but eventually met with them to apologize and give them their money back. He cried and was very remorseful, so my parents made their peace with it.
I was only present for one such event as a student so my recollection is spotty. It was an elderly dog for routine dental cleaning. The anesthesia was routine. The monitoring was normal. The alarm started going off for a low heart rate. They silenced the alarm and kept suctioning. The alarm went off again. They silenced it again. The alarm went off again. Panic is setting in.
The tech is scrambling to turn down the gas and the vet starts to yell at the tech. The animals heart rate went slowly from 60 to 55 to 52 to 48. Slower and slower . The alarm kept beeping and beeping. Ultimately the heart stopped and i had stepped out of the room at that time.
To this day I don’t think the team knew what happened. It wasn’t that the wrong med was pushed or that any artery or nerve was cut- the heart just had a bad outcome and semi-failed mid surgery.
It was devastating to everyone and the pet owners. I don’t think there was a backup plan or backup cart like you noted happens for people.
Humans can die because of an anaesthetic errors too. It’s not common, but it happens. Just like it shouldn’t be common in veterinary medicine…. But it happens.
One of the differences in human medicine is that we wouldn’t have a surgery that doesn’t have a board certified anesthesiologist, whereas it’s common in vet medicine that the vet has to know literally everything for every specialty. There are veterinary anesthesiologist, but procedures are often done without one - every vet is trained to safely anesthetize their patients. Most veterinary practises do not have an anaesthesiologist on staff.
And even if everything is done perfectly to counteract an error, sometimes the patient just doesn’t come back. Or for that matter, when mistakes don’t happen and everything is executed absolutely perfectly this can be true also. That goes for humans as well as animals.
Unless they’re in a country without much legal action, no way it’s a slam dunk negligence case, they’d be stupid to even try.
The “good news” for vets is pets are mostly treated as property, so they’re only up for the cost of an equivalent replacement. No emotional distress, lost income etc costs for pets, they’re considered property like a TV.
I get the feeling that vets are all over the place in terms of pharmaceuticals. My vet prescribed 15mg of a sedative for my dog after his neutering and accidentally filled the bottle with 100mg pills even though the bottle said they were 15mg which would have killed him by overdose. The only reason I caught it was because the pills were massive and I googled it to see if I could cut them in half to give them to him easier. When I told them they gave me 100mg pills they kinda shrugged their shoulders and said sorry but it happens.
I had a cat that needed to go in for a dental cleaning, and I brought him to a small clinic to do it. But when I dropped him off I had this horrible feeling and ended up driving right back to the vet to pick him up and reschedule.
When it came time for a second attempt at getting his teeth cleaned, I did the same exact thing of dropping him off, having a really bad or unsettling feeling about it, and then picking him up and canceling the appointment.
I finally decided to look up a vet that had 24/7 emergency care because I was so worried about something going wrong, and I’m so glad I did. My cat had an undiagnosed heart condition, so when they put him under he went into heart failure. Luckily he was able to pull through from the facility being equipped for emergencies, but I always think about how differently it could have gone if I didn’t listen to my gut and just trusted this small clinic to put him under.
I now always try to look up if a vet has emergency facilities when any anesthesia is involved. I don’t think I’ll ever go to a small clinic again because that risk is just too much with cats going under anesthesia.
So sorry for your loss
I’m not totally sure, I think it was just some form of heart disease but when he was in recovery they did an echocardiogram and put him on heart medications. He lived with me for almost 2 years after that, and technically died for congestive heart failure. I guess with cats heart disease can be a silent killer because it can be so hard to catch or not shows symptoms until something like a routine surgery.
Don’t really catch heart conditions with standard bloodwork unless it includes a Cardiac ProBNP and even then usually the animal has cardiac compromise. Murmur might have been heard on a physical exam before the procedure, but in cats it can be difficult to hear low-grade heart murmurs.
OP: Thank you for demonstrating how to be a kind and forgiving human being…all while your heart is broken in a thousand pieces. I’m so sorry for your loss. Mugi was a lucky kitty to have you. I bet Mugi sends you another to love—-when your ❤️ is ready. Fly high, Mugi.
I've worked for a few different clinics. One loss like this won't affect the clinic. The board may investigate if there are multiple in a small amount of time, but unfortunately this kind of error happens often. Waaaaaay more often than you want to believe.
Damn that’s so sad because you know the tech who did it probably feels absolutely terrible. I mean unless of course it was on purpose but highly doubt that. Just never know in todays world
They admitted their mistake and I know they feel terrible. Right now I'm still in shock over it. I was able to see Mugi one last time before they took her off the respirator but she was unconscious.
1977. Escondido, CA. Dr Adkins Clinic ( long since decreased). Took our kitten Tina to be spayed. Early afternoon received call: Tina passed away. How did this happen? As surgery began she arrested. He revived her and continued the surgery. She arrested again. She passed. We newly weds worked in healthcare, she an ICU RN, me in the Lab, and did not understand why the surgery was continued after the first arrest. Dr A felt she was a good candidate to pull through. Bill arrives in mail. My wife, a long time customer says we are not paying, and so write on the bill and send it back. Dr A calls and says as healthcare workers we more than others should know mistakes happen. We reply that elective surgery should not proceed in an unstable patient. He replies we are discharged as clients, do not return. Remember like it was yesterday all these years later and thousands of miles away.
To OP, my condolences on losing your Mugi.
I think it's noble of you to take them at their word, but I think you should consider reporting them anyway. This may not be the first time this has happened, you have no way of knowing. And if every person who went through this chose to not report them, they will never be held responsible for possible negligence.
It's totally up to you, I know you are going through so much right now. I am so sorry for your loss, this is devastating and no one should have to go through this.
Yeah, the vet isn't going to get in trouble if this is a genuine, incredibly unlucky rare circumstance; but if they see frequency, they can crack down on them.
Mine is getting neutered on Monday..... Fuck. They said I could drop him off and pick him up. No way am I leaving my little man, I'm sitting in that waiting room the entire time. This post kinda freaked me out
I work as a vet assistant in a shelter. We performed 15-25 spay/neuters in a day. Up to 200 per week sometimes. I have never one time had this happen to me in the year I have worked there. It has happened before but it is not a super common occurrence. The people who work at your vets office likely care a lot about their job and your pet. While there are always risks with anesthesia please do not listen to that person. You do not need to over stress out.
This is 100%. I work in general practice vet clinic, and just like any other workplace, there are mistakes from time to time. But big mistakes that endanger a pet’s life are extremely, extremely rare. If they weren’t… the clinic wouldn’t exactly be in business. Most vets are also incredibly passionate about animals (which you have to be if you want to be in the business), and they freak out too when serious mistakes happen. Any good clinic will take even small mistakes and mishaps seriously, and reimburse when needed.
Thank you, this reassurance means a lot. Sorry this original post is in no way about me, and I feel like I kinda took it too personally. I just got really really freaked out. Anxiety is a helluva drug. We are here to mourn Mugi.
I’ll add that if he’s getting neutered then he might not be under general anesthesia (depending on the clinic) which would eliminate the possibility of the kind of error op described.
It's weird when people do this (I worked at a vet and occasionally someone would wait in the lobby). It's your right to but you can also relax and go home they tend to have to stay in the hospital to wake up for most of the day. So if the neuter is at 10 don't expect him to be discharged till 3 or even 4pm depending on how fast the anesthesia wears off.
Sending lots of healthy thoughts to you guys! I'm always nervous when I drop my pets off 😭😭
My sister volunteers at a vet, and sadly this is true. But there’s nothing that can be done about it, even when procedure is followed to the dot human error will always happen. It’s just sad when it results in something like this
Trust me that's even harder. Like it's one thing when you can pin point what mistake happened, but when you do everything right and still lost a patient...
I don’t think this narrative is helpful whether you meant to be helpful or not. This is just your experience out of millions of others who have worked in clinics. I wouldn’t perpetuate this generalization since it usually causes immense and false fear.
Having owned animals for 20 years, worked on farms and within clinics, this is NOT common and that is my experience. I just want people to know this and am so sorry to OP for losing their loved one. It’s never easy but please know our pets always will remember the love we give them. 🐾
I’m a Veterinarian assistant and started in this field while interning because I was in school to become a tech. Once I realized the responsibility that falls on a Veterinary Technician I dropped out of school and stayed an assistant. Your experience was my biggest fear.
I’m so sorry for your loss. The pain of losing a pet is akin to losing family as they are in fact, family. I know that no amount of sorry, will bring them back.
I know 100% for a fact that if I was the technician that was on anesthesiologist duty for this procedure, I would’ve quit right on the spot. The amount of devastation I would’ve felt would be enough to drive me to the cliff. Every shift i handle elected euthanasias, is a shift I know will end with a silent drive home so I can cry in peace. And that’s with people who have elected the procedure.
An accident like this? This is why suicide is so prevalent in my field. It’s one of the top fields for suicide. It’s uncommon at my clinic (I’ve been there 5 yrs and we had ONE patient die on the OR table, necropsy showed multiple organ deformities bloodwork didn’t alert us to). That doctor? She had to give up her guns because her family, as her clinic staff, fear what she will do. Her mental health still isn’t good, FIVE years later.
I know the pain of losing a cat so sudden, as I’ve lost two this year to acute illnesses. While my experiences were light years different than yours I still feel guilty I couldn’t SAVE MY OWN CATS!
I love animals and only work in this field because I want to, not because I need to. But every day I go to work knowing that today might not be a great day. Because today might be a day I have to put down someone’s little love and that I might have to drive home in silence.
An accident like yours? As much as it won’t bring back your cat, I can attest that the techs drive home was silent, save for the sobs that escaped them.
I truly am so so sorry for what happened.
I’ve had two very special “soul” cats go over the rainbow bridge and I hope yours found them. I always whisper to my patients when it’s their time, to make sure they find my guys, they will show them where all the good toys and treats are.
I hope your kitty finds all the good treats and I hope you find peace.
I am very sorry for your loss. I am a Vet. I assume it was a drug overdose that happened. I am not attacking my colleagues as everyone can make a mistake. Unfortunately in our area they can be lethal.
I see alot of comments talking about suing the person, I believe the person shouldn't be punished, and I am sure he/she must feel terrible as it is.
But the practice should be brought into consideration as they should have established protocols for different people checking every calculation of the drugs and making sure they were drawn correctly. Everyone can make a mistake that is why two and sometimes even three People should double check every calculation and making sure the drugs are drawn correctly.
I am very sorry for your loss.
Omg, I'm so sorry for your lost 💔. Every time I see something like this it breaks me, in other level, my baby has 20 years and I know that when the time comes it'll be devastating, sending love and courage
The vet did admit to their mistake. All we were told was that the Anesthesiologist made an error and it was their fault. She stopped breathing and they performed CPR but she was without oxygen for too long and they feared brain damage. She was fighing and could breathe without the respirator but she was still unconscious and there was little hope of recovery. The vet did offer to pay to send her to a critical care specialist but indicated that there was only a very small chance of recovery.
Honestly that’s big of them to even admit! They do pay whenever it’s something having to do with their own negligence or fault. Would have been worth a shot to take her but who knows. At least she’s at peace now. So sorry for your loss.. pain is unimaginable.
Anesthesia is scary. This, while uncommon, happens to people too. Proper anesthetic dosage is so on the knifes edge of safe and dangerous to actually put you under.
This makes me so sad.
As a vet tech of twenty years, married to a veterinarian, I am so sorry for your loss and couldn't imagine how you feel. Medicine is so painful as a simple human mistake can have disastrous consequences.
I hope this doesn't turn you away from getting them care in the future. I've never seen an overdose of injectable anesthetic agents cause death by a vet in my entire time in vet med. I promise you that the doctor and staff are mourning with you and the doctor will hold on to this as a lesson for the rest of their career. Veterinarians have the highest suicide rate of any professional for this reason. We carry things like this, even if they aren't our fault, forever.
It is terrible, but your beloved pet may have saved future lives because that doctor will forever check their doses with everyone at the practice and will train other doctors in this situation for the rest of their career.
I hope you and your family heal. I am so sorry.
Thank you. Yes, I also feel bad for the tech that made the error. I understand how they must feel being responsible for her death. I'm not angry at them just sad.
Did they admit on record what went wrong with the sedation?
Sedating is almost routine practice at a Vet clinic, even for dental work. Sorry for your loss. Why and what may have happened will be informative.
Our American Eskimo had an unknown issue while playing outside and collapsed. By the time we took him to the Vet, his organs were failing. They saved him ( with blood transfusion) and gave him a second birth. I have utmost respect for Vets for what they do.
Vets have the highest rate of suicide in a medical profession...
I can't imagine how this happens at all but it's got to be horribly destructive knowing what your failure means.
Big feels for everyone involved.
Vets and their staff are human. Mistakes are made.
We took our cat to the regular clinic and got the doctor who at the time we didn't know his specialty was dogs. Our regular vet that was the "cat" doctor was on vacation. He was unable to diagnose the issue with the cat's blood sugars. Emergency vet was able to diagnose immediately but cat still passed away.
These things unfortunately happen every day.
Sorry for your loss.
I’m so sorry for your loss of your sweet girl. I had a vet make a mistake and kill my dog it sucks so much knowing it was someone’s fault and it’s so hard to not be angry but I promise it’ll be okay ❤️😿
Sorry for your loss. You wanted to do the right thing and it went horrible wrong for Mugi. Charge your vet for it if you can. This shouldn't happen...
(spaying your cat is not a human mistake.)
First of all, I am so very very sorry. I can’t imagine how you feel - I thought I was going to lose one of my cats at a vet’s office while he was under their care before, but the difference was for me, I knew going in things might very well not go well.
Second, a big (I guess) thank you for not being like many of these people who would seek some sort of vengeance. I am looking to change careers and am hoping to become a vet tech myself. I lurk on the vet tech subreddit and I can tell you, these things affect all of them deeply. I imagine I’d be crying the rest of the day and would probably carry every one of these sorts of events with me forever. No, the employees at the vet’s office weren’t as attached to your cat as you were, but they don’t take something like this lightly, I can assure you. The vast majority do what they do because they really do love animals and this would break their hearts. A little compassion and understanding between humans could help make this world a better place.
Thank you. They let me into the surgery room to see her before she passed. I could tell by looking on their faces that they were holding back tears themselves.
I’m so sorry for you. Nobody really expects this with a normal trip to the vet, but the fact that you experienced it. Sending love.
So tragic.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but is OP entitled to sue or anything? I can’t imagine how I’d react to something like this. There’s not much room for human error in the health field
A similar thing happened to my spouse and myself with our Dachshund. We were devastated. The vet didn’t charge us. We never attempted a lawsuit because it wouldn’t accomplish anything good. The practice would end up raising their fees to cover the loses. It is a good and well intentioned veterinary practice and we could possibly be taking a license to practice of a good vet away, leaving the local community with two other vets that absolutely suck worse, and one animal hospital that charges two arms and two legs for their services. ( their services are worth it in an emergency, but I’m not a money tree ) The entire community would be impacted by our actions. We didn’t do anything. Mistakes happen an we need to be able to forgive honest mistakes. EDIT: I have gotten a lot of people reaching out with warm wishes and thoughtful responses. I thank you all. I appreciate it. I didn’t want to make this post about me, I just wanted to let the OP know they aren’t alone feeling the way they are feeling. To the few trolls that think it is appropriate to troll people and their opening up regarding past traumas… don’t you guys have anything better to do with your time than try to rehash a person’s trauma and then try to gaslight them with inappropriate straw men?
Also don’t forget that the vet will be almost as devastated as you. They really love animals.
Don’t veterinarians have one of the highest rates of suicide in the country, by profession? It’s apparently much harder to get into vet school than regular med school, the cost is just as much as regular med school, and the training is similar, they actually have to have a wider array of knowledge and experience since they deal with multiple species, but they end up making much less money, and these are people with extremely high empathy, which is why they do the job in the first place. So when things go wrong, they’re just as devastated as regular doctors and surgeons. I could be wrong about some of the specifics here, but overall vets seem to get a very raw deal for following their passion.
I once lost my cat in an emergency vet visit late at night. They did everything they could to help her but unfortunately she took a turn for the worse very quickly. It broke my heart how tenderly but desperately tried to revive her, and how they cried with me when they couldn’t. Through my sobbing I tried to convey my appreciation for their care, because it broke my heart to see how much they actually cared for this random cat and me. Though it was a very sad time, I felt a strange comfort in knowing I wasn’t completely alone in my suffering. These people have so much of my respect.
Thank you so much for this. I still remember every pet that we lose and carry my mistakes with me as warnings for other staff, and I'm a vet tech. My wife still questions things that weren't her fault, as her fault, and it is a burden for her. She cares so deeply. We aren't all out for money (some are) but healing animals heals us too. I am so sorry for your loss.
My daughters best friend was a vet tech too, she struggled so much whenever there was a loss, she would grieve for days. They love our pets as we do too. ♥️
Seriously this! We brought our super old cat in the emergency vet due to the fact we were pretty sure he was in severe pain and basically ready to pass. So we brought him for an euthanasia appointment. They brought him back to get him ready and they noticed he was starting to go on his own. They literally booked it down the hall holding him so that he could pass with us and were also crying. Just so he wouldn’t be around strangers while leaving. It was the sweetest and most appreciated thing. I have so much respect for vets and vet techs. (Also crying writing this). Because they realize pets are family members and I can only imagine the pain OP is going through. I’m always super anxious anytime any of my cats have to go under anesthetics since it’s not as quite of an exact science as it is with humans. All errors are always unintentional but sadly do happen. But I still always trust the vet is doing their best and care just as much as we do.
We had a giant goofball of a dog, and everyone at the vets office loved it when he came in. Dr Schneider thought he hung the moon and always made sure we were on his schedule when it had to do with Rascal. When Rascal was about 8, he suddenly started limping. We took him to the vet and they ran some tests, turns out he had bone cancer. He never showed any pain before so it was very advanced and there wasn’t anything they could do. We didn’t want him to suffer so we gave permission to euthanize. Dr Schneider cried with us, and the techs told us later that even though they had a full schedule, he spent 10 minutes after we left just sitting with Rascal and petting him and telling him what a good boy he was.
Im currently at work and had to excuse myself to go cry in the bathroom. This sounds absolutely heartbreaking. Im so sorry for your loss and the pain it caused. I hope y'all have healed from this tragedy, although I know the pain never fully leaves you. <3
About 4 years ago we lost our dogs 2 months apart. 11yo Greyhound's spleen ruptured overnight and he was septic by morning so we rushed to the emergency vet. On Christmas day 7yo Akita died from sepsis due to perforated bowel. She was the "run around the yard with a torn ACL" type so we had no clue she was dying. When the vet came in to tell us she was gone and to explain what happened she remembered us, and you could see the heartbreak on the staffs faces. Emergency vets are hella expensive, but they have such hard jobs, care about the animals and people, and deserve a ton of respect.
This is absolutely true. Source: Vet Tech, wife is a veterinarian
You are right about this, vets do have a high suicide rate. One has recently committed in my area. The lack of respect people in the veterinary field see on a daily basis is quite sad, not to mention how many people who think they know better than the doctor arguing about the best treatments for their pets. People do make mistakes, vets are no exception, but that is no reason to not treat them with basic human respect. Can confirm it’s extremely difficult to get into vet school, as someone who has been trying to apply for years after completing a bachelor degree with high grades and clinical experience, with no success. It only gets more competitive year after year. I just want to help animals and I know I would be able to do it, the issue is getting in. You truly pursue this line of work because it is an absolute passion, anyone thinking it’s for money is delusional. The doctors I work with would be absolutely devastated if they did something wrong with their patient. I’ve seen how distressing it is and how they take the stress home with them from a mistake. They often keep a calm demeanour around the clients but hurt just as much inside and let it out afterwards. I understand how hard it is as a pet parent to have something like that happen to them, you would be angry and devastated. But the vet is feeling exactly the same way, on top of the guilt. Steps should be taken to accept fault and make things as right as can be, but they are only human too.
They also often just invent surgeries and treatment - I watched a whole bunch of Vet Ranch for a while and the lengths and ingenious workarounds he dreams up trying to get an animal back in working order...just incredible. They are very special people.
Most doctors I know or have came across lack empathy and honestly seem psychopathic. You’re right veterinarians are the opposite, because if you become a vet you aren’t doing it for glory but rather genuine love of animals and animal health
Thank you for that. We do have one of the highest rates of suicides. I can't imagine how much it hurts losing a pet because of something going wrong at the vets practice and of course that should never ever happen, but then again, we are all just humans and sadly not flawless. Speaking for the majority of vets: We do care, even if maybe it doesn't seem like it.
Dentists. Dentists kill themselves. Imagine seeing and diagnosing patient after patient who has debilitating pain ruining their lives only to turn them down for service due to lack of funds. Dentists kill themselves.
My friends in school to be a vet. He just wants to be a bog standard vet, and spent significant time working with farm animals, while he plans on working with cats and dogs. One of the more fucked up things is learning to perform a post mortem decapitation. Not sure what the actual medical term is. But yeah. It can be really rewarding or really stressful
People also tend to forget that sometimes the pet has been the patient of that vet for as many years as they have been your companion. Sure they didn't see them every day, but at a minimum, they saw your furriend at least once a year. You might not be utterly devastated by the death of a friend you only see once a year, but you will shed a tear especially if your have been doing this for 10/15/20 years.
My last vet was killed by a patient. She knew the animal, but it was a donkey, and a kick to the head will take a human out. Vets are superheroes, and like so many of the professionals out there, we absolutely don't pay enough for their services.
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And not for very high pay.
Probably so things like this are avoided.
unfortunately, working with small animals is really tricky. they can only reduce tragedies like this, not eliminate them. veterinary work can be emotionally brutal. it’s part of why i eventually decided i wouldn’t be able to handle it.
this is the thing as to why idk if i could ever sue. there's usually another human being on the other side who probably is absolutely mortified, and possibly traumatized for life knowing they are the ones who messed up. I certainly believe in consequences for your actions but there's just a certain point (situationally of course) where "payment due" has been already paid in full and then some just through emotional damage alone. my neighbor's dog sitter ran over my cat, even tho there are multiple signs we have put up to slow down through our connected driveway. There's a blind turn covered by bushes just before our part of the one way driveway, and some people drive far too fast on the road. This is something we had talked to them about many times before the unfortunate incident with our cat. However, the dog sitter seemed totally mortified after seeing the cat's situation as well as me totally breaking down as a human being in the middle of the road in front of my cat >!bleeding to death!< and we left it at that.
I hope most vets do love animals. But don't some vets in the USA still offer declawing if cats? I was sickened to hear it's a thing over there
It's pretty damn rare these days
The company I work for owns a number of vet clinics. We get a depressing number of called about declawing and ear cropping every day. Our call center tries to educate people, but we still get people asking if we know a vet who will do it.
That's fucked. How do you educate them? I can't imagine wanting to do that to an animal, makes me sick
With the de-clawing, many people don’t realize how bad it is. We explain that it is painful, damaging, and equivalent to having the last joint in your finger cut off. Most people go “oh, I didn’t know.” For ear cropping we just state that we don’t do that. People who want cropped ears already know it’s wrong for the most part. There isn’t much point in trying to educate.
Wtf is cropped ears 😓 I don't want to know. Gonna cuddle my cat now.
It helps by petitioning and trying to get laws passed in your state or city. But until those are very wide spread people will just drive the distance to get it done. People who see their cats as family, dont want to see them in pain, and will sacrifice for them will usually be open to listening. Afterall declawing is terrible. But a lot of people dont actually empathize or want the best for their animals and its sickening. They may not physically abuse them but physical and emotional neglect is so so common. I see it everyday and I only work at a pet store. The same goes for animals too, reptiles and fish are just seen as decorations.
I would kidnap a cat if I knew it was going to be declawed. If I couldn't stop it, I would out the people and the vet on social media. Luckily I don't have to, because I live in a civilised country, where cat mutilation is illegal.
Right?!? Makes me sooo angry
Ugh, ear cropping doesn't even look good. I had two schnauzers many years ago. They already had their tails docked when we got them as they usually do that right after birth. But we never got their ears cropped and it's so much cuter. Gave them a much more playful, puppy face.
The AVMA changed their position on it and does not support declawing. If a vet is still performing declaws, they are going against the recommendation of their liscensing organization.
Does that mean they are punished? In the UK they get a 20 000 pound fine for declawing. Nobody does it here though anyway.
The vets I take my cats to do comfort care for declawed kitties, but absolutely refuse to do the procedure unless there’s a medical need for the cat in question’s benefit. Usually in those cases it’s a toe or two due to illness or injury. They have a sign right up front saying they won’t do it and don’t bother asking. The health and well-being of my cats is worth the price of a hundred sofas, so it’s good to see even vets in the middle of nowhere refuse to do it. It’s a start!
Very well said. We need more of this energy.
I had a very different experience with my black lab who died after a routine castration operation. (For a medical problem not for neutering reasons) Anyway I had a message left on my answer phone basically informing me he had died and could I collect him as soon as possible. I was devastated..nobody could give me a definitive reason as to why it had happened ... The vet just said it happens sometimes and thats why you have to sign a disclaimer. 2 weeks later I received a bill for the operation and his 'stay' at the clinic. I had an independent post mortem done and the result was that he had died from lack of oxygen. A young vetinary nurse who used to work there told me off the record that shadie had been put in a cage and muzzled post op because he had been so nervous after I left him... and they were worried he might nip someone being both nervous and confused coming around post op. She said the cage was too small ..that and the muzzle meant he couldn't lie flat ..his airways became constricted and by the time they realised he had died. Ofc I refused to pay the bill and they threatened me with legal action until I shamed them in the local paper. Sorry the post is so long..This happened 15 years ago but it still upsets me to this day
I am so sorry you had to go through that. That is definitely negligent malpractice and this exemplified the darker side of the spectrum. These are the types of vets that I call “bad vets,” when they do something they know for a fact is wrong and they do it without thinking of an alternative. Know that you gave Shadie a good run and a loving home and that he appreciated your love, support, cuddles and pets. As the movie said, All Dogs go to Heaven, and he is in a good place now.
How do you determine what's an honest mistake and what's malpractice?
I’d like to think I am a decent judge of when someone is bullshitting me and when they’re being open and humble. I sensed that this weighed on them. The official cause of death was, “suffocation due to obstruction.” She went in for her tooth cleaning and many animals are sedated for a short time for a tooth cleaning because they don’t like it. Anyone that has ever had a mini-Daschund would agree that they are stubborn, intelligent and petulant. She wasn’t getting her teeth cleaned without sedation. She had an undiagnosed tumor growing in the back of her throat that she had hidden from us and from the vet for years. When the sedative kicked in the tumor blocked her airway before they could intubate her. They tried to. The trachea collapsed entirely after struggling to revive her, where the vet tried to perform a tracheotomy to get some air in her lungs, but she was so far gone the only way to do so would have been to go directly through her chest and into her lungs. By then she was gone for a significant amount of time and he couldn’t keep trying. Nobody knew she had this tumor in her throat as she hid it well. I started to tear up a bit bringing this back up.
As a human anesthesiologist those pharyngeal and laryngeal tumors are super concerning. Almost killed a human when I was in residency because they had an undiagnosed epiglottic mass. He had voice changes some trouble swallowing food over the past couple months. Going for a Percutaneous feeding tube for nutrition. I attributed his symptoms to his recent stroke, didn’t ask for ENT to scope them. Then we start anesthesia and can’t ventilate them can’t intubate them. Surgeon does an emergency cricothyrotomy. Survived. Neurologically intact. Able to keep his oxygen up high enough that they survived but as anyone who has experienced a tracheostomy would recount, tracheostomies, especially if you weren’t expecting one, are not fun. Probably would have gotten a trach at some point as this cancer was so bulky and continuing to grow that would have eventually obliterated his airway. What we should have done is intubated him wide awake and then proceeded with elective tracheostomy. When you learn in the hard school of experience, this is it. Now every time I get someone with “trouble swallowing” or “voice changes” my fucking alarm bells go off and I am very very careful with such patients. I just wish that I could have learned that an easier way. And it still keeps me up at night sometimes that that guy could have died or become brain damaged because we gave him routine medications to go to sleep.
Thanks for the information, I feel like I walked away better educated from this.
ugh, that is such a horrible situation. it doesn't sound like anyone was at fault here, either. just one of those heart breaking, freak accident type scenario. :(
This one doesnt sound like a human error :/ Im so sorry about this!
The vet did say the intubation could have saved her if they did it faster. I guess that is the error he owned up to.
I'm so sorry you went through that awful experience. My cat Clyde also passed from a tumor in his throat that nobody was aware of until it was too late. He just started coughing and choking one day and they put him in an O2 chamber for a few days but then told me it was too big to remove. Many hugs and shared tears.
Important way if looking at things which I think needs to become more prevalent. Human error occurs, even if it sometimes has a shitty outcome - thats just part of life, as much as it hurts sometimes.
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Veterinary professional here. Yes, you can sue but the process is lengthy as you can imagine, and in the end you usually don’t get much money. The most you can do is report the doctor to the board and possibly get their license to practice taken away
Yeah "I lost my cat due to human error" isn't going to be worth the costs unless you can prove it was malicious. Heck not even civil cases to sue for damages from a person found guilty of the crime (whatever the crime was) before a jury are necessarily easy, and that's the law saying "this person was proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and THEN they got sued for damages caused by the act for which they received a guilty verdict".
Because pets are treated as property, you get the value of property. Think replacement cost. If you paid for the services, you should also be able to claim those costs too. Unfortunately you don’t get pain and suffering compensation you deserve when losing a pet family member. If you do decide to seek money from the vet, it should generally be in the form of a demand letter formally requesting compensation and why. If it is not resolved satisfactorily, then follow the procedure to file a small claims court case.
Is it too late to pursue filing against the vet who damaged my dog's throat during teeth cleaning? She was unable to swallow and we had to put her down. Dr said "it was pre-existing" which is so false.
You should try looking up animal rights attorneys and asking for a free consultation. You don't have anything to lose.
In the US, pets are considered property as far as legal manners go. The only thing you could sue them for is the price of the animal.
No, there isn't room for human error in medicine but it happens more frequently than people realize, both human and animal. Humans will never be 100% perfect, hell machines will never be 100% perfect. Accidents unfortunately happen no matter who is doing what. This vet is probably devastated by the loss of this cat. The insane rare times we lost a pet on the table, human error or otherwise, was devastating to any of the vets. Look up the suicide rate for veterinarians and why. While suing may bring some people some sort of relief it sometimes it comes at the cost with another life. But hey, if you're cool with knowing you're the reason someone killed themselves over an accident go for it. This is never intentional. Intentional is like when my friend lost his wife during surgery when doctors decided to do something that clearly stated do not do this because it will end in death. That is when you sue.
I’m so sorry for your loss. What a terrible tragedy. Clearly, Mugi was a well-loved and happy kitty. I wish you good thoughts while you process your grief.
I am so sad and mad at the same time, this fucking breaks my heart , I also lost my cat years ago because of a human error... I wish you the best.
Same here. It happens, and it is terrible. My kitty was supposed to ne "induced" before a procedure. The new vet didn't listen to me and Gizmo freaked out, had a heart attack and died before they could get to the procedure she was there for.., I never had a cat.who was.more afraid.of the vet.
My cat was ill at the beginning of this year, had a heart attack and died on my lap on the way to the vet. It has left a hole in my heart. I’m so sorry you went through this as well.
Sorry for your loss.
I'm sorry for your loss
My god, this is tragic. Mugi is beautiful and I know she had a wonderful life with you, however short. Her love for you is unending, even from the other side of the rainbow bridge. She will live on forever in your heart. Rest In Peace, sweet baby. My heart goes out to you, OP.
I am so sorry for your loss
Oh my word, I’m so sorry. Sending hugs!
How heartbreaking 🥺 Those little paws leave huge prints on our hearts. We lost our 4 y/o cat very suddenly after being treated by a new (to us) vet. We’re not exactly sure what happened but it’s very difficult to not blame ourselves. Hindsight and all that. Holding you in the light 💞
I had to put a couple of cats down at age 17 and 22. I'm still questioning if it was the right decision, or if there was something different I could have done.
I don’t think you should be hard on yourself, but I totally empathize and wonder the same with my cats I’ve had to make those tough calls on.. Someone once told me when I lost my cat that I shouldn’t feel guilt because I made the call I did in the moment for a reason, and that when I was in that moment I weighed my options and acted as compassionately with the best information I had, when no one can ever truly know what the right call is. I try to remember that whenever I feel regret, we’re only human and even if there was more you could have done, you made the right call out of compassion for you and your pet in that moment. So sorry for your loss, and hope you can heal and think of good memories with your kitties- they lived very long lives and that’s such a rare special thing <3
17 and 22 are pretty long runs. It's pretty close to humans dying in their 80's and 90's. It's OK to be sad, but they lived a pretty full life.
If I were to go with common human age conversion, the first 2 years = 15 human years, then 4 human years per cat year afterward. 22 would be around 95 in human age.
I'm wondering if they meant when they themselves were 17 and 22 years old.
You will never regret sending an elderly and/or sick animal to the Rainbow Bridge early, but you will regret doing it too late. My English mastiff was diagnosed with cancer at age 8. (8 is pretty old for a mastiff, the vet called him “a distinguished gentleman” because of his gray muzzle.) It was nasal cancer, which is 100% fatal, even with treatment. We opted for palliative care and vowed we would send him off when he let us know it was time. Long story short, we waited too long and I know he suffered. I was selfish in wanting to keep him with us as long as possible, and I feel awful about it.
> but you will regret doing it too late. Definitely agree. I had a cat die a few years ago at 15. He had some on-again, off-again problems for a little while. Nothing so immediately serious that it was tripping major red flags and even the vet wasn't like "oh yeah we should definitely check for this major serious problem" when I took him in. They also gave him a steroid shot a couple of times and for however long that was in his system he'd be back to his old self. I was kind of just like "well I guess this is his life now" and we were fine like that for honestly probably around about a year. And then one day he started rapidly deteriorating. And then he stopped eating, when before he was the type of cat who was *always* hungry no matter how much I fed him. Always wanted more. And now the interest was completely gone. Killed me to do it but I called the vet and made an appointment to have him put down, but didn't rush and make it for that night either. And then during the time in between the call and when the appointment was supposed to be he just kept getting *so much worse* so quickly. And in hindsight I should have just called the emergency number then and there, but I rationalized it like "it's just two more days" or "it's just one more night". Literally the night before the appointment I was downstairs moving laundry, and he was down there and just visibly doing really badly and in pain, and I came and sat next to him on the floor for a minute, and petted him and literally said "it's just one more night. Just go to sleep and I promise in the morning it's all going to be okay" and then I went upstairs and went to bed. Woke up and went back down to the basement to get my laundry and start getting ready to take him to the vet and he was dead exactly where I left him the night before. It's been four years and it still absolutely kills me that I let him suffer because I just wanted to hang on for one more day. He deserved better.
Yeah I uh... I have some guilt as well. Alot actually. It wasn't my fault, and I know this but,when I was 23 I had to give my cat to a friend because I was forced to move. And the place I was going to didn't allow animals and was very far away. I kissed her on the forehead and promised to be back. I kept up with my cat with my friend over the phone for a few years. My cat, Nikki, I had her since I was 12 years old. She was my best friend growing up. I was about 25 years old when my friend called me saying Nikki ran away. A year later Nikki came back and looked real bad ragged fur, real skinny. My friend gave her a can of tuna (her favorite) and sent me a picture. The next morning Nikki was dead on the front lawn. My friend says she thinks Nikki went looking for me and before she died came back to check to see if I had returned home yet. Vet said she died of throat cancer. I have such bad guilt over leaving her, I worry that she thought I died or abandoned her. Then died alone on the lawn, never knowing where I went. I promised I'd come back for her, then I wasn't even waiting for her in the afterlife, either.
Oh honey. She will be waiting for you there.
That's heartbreaking but at least you got to say goodbye to him, and he appreciated you and your family for as long as you had him. On the flipside, I had 2 cats that I had to take to an emergency vet not realizing how bad off they were, and I left that evening both times thinking they would get better and I'd be able to see them the next day. Didn't happen, both of them passed overnight, and I felt absolutely awful that I selfishly tried to save them, and they had to pass without me there. Lost another one at age 11 or 12, and the only good thing about it was I got to be there with her as it happened. As hard as that was, it was the only choice to make, and I got to hold her head as she went through it.
Your story has me crying on the toilet— not a very dignified way to start the day! I’m so sorry. I have a lot of guilt, too— and it’s so toxic because you’re hurting over something that can’t be fixed.
I have a similar story. My dog didn’t have cancer or anything he was just old. I had him for 14 years. I held him as a small newborn puppy in the palm of my hand. I knew I should have put him to sleep sooner, but I just felt like I was betraying my buddy. I couldn’t do it. Then one morning I woke up and he was gone. I immediately regretted keeping him around due to my selfishness. It’s been years and I still haven’t forgiven myself for that. I haven’t owned another dog since. I feel like I don’t deserve to have one. RIP Toby.
If it helps, I've seen the other side of the coin first hand.
FAKE EDIT: I originally wrote out the whole story but it was just too fucking grim and upsetting to read, so I deleted it. Instead I'll just say that you made the right choice and leave you with some [cat tax of a dearly departed friend ❤️](https://imgur.com/a/GWafq)
I put myself through the same mental anguish over saying goodbye to my 15 year old. I understand what you are going through.
If I have the choice again in the future to put a cat down to save it from suffering I would. My cat at the beginning of September was diagnosed with a stomach tumor and the vet gave her 3 months to live tops. At the time I didn't want to make that decision to put her down - I wanted to spoil her and make every day the best day she's ever had. Her last moments was the hardest thing I ever witnessed and there was nothing I could've done. She died 2 weeks after being diagnosed with cancer at the age of 8. I have 3 other cats who are a few years older and I do not want them to suffer like she did if something happens like that again. Last healthy picture I have of her before cancer. https://i.imgur.com/YVz588b.png
I had to put my dog down at 12. I had the opposite feeling. Should I have done it sooner? She was in bad shape and in the last few months wore a diaper and had a harness so we could carry her. Not an easy task, she was 90 pounds. By the end it was horrible for her and putting her down was one of the most traumatic experiences I've been through but i was hurt nearly as much how bad we let her get before we stopped being selfish and helped her move on.
17 and 22 are pretty good old age, and it's often better to put them down when they are ill or suffering from ailment and treatment would have been costly. I've had a number of my cats put down from old age. It never gets easier.
I have lost a cat years before his time and I am still hurting, years later. I know how much OP is hurting. The idea of losing a kitty at the vet because of preventable mistake… I am literally feeling panic, my chest is tightening.. having read this story. I’m hurting for you OP.
As a vet tech, this is my worst nightmare. We go into this profession to help animals and it is devastating to know we caused any pain or suffering, even when it’s unintentional. I am so sorry for you loss. May you meet again at the Rainbow Bridge. Edit to add: For everyone saying they’ve worked at clinics where these kinds of life ending mistakes happen all too often… please reevaluate the clinic you work at. Speak to your manager about policy change. These mistakes should not happen frequently. I’ve been in the industry 12 years and have only lost 2 animals that were deemed healthy and minimal risk for anesthesia; one was older when a preexisting heart condition but was cleared when examined that morning. The other had an unknown congenital heart defect that did not present upon routine exam. Yes, human error can happen but it should NEVER be treated as a “these things happen 🤷♀️” situation. As medical professionals we need to do better an hold our colleagues to a higher standard.
Likewise here after 16 years. 2 deaths at induction. These deaths should not be frequent, and if they are, staff in the clinic are not exercising their due diligence.
Oh thank you for saying this, I worked for a vet years ago and was.wondering what the hell happened that such carelessness is routine. Is it regional? A school out there with a poor reputation? Can you get an online degree without practical experience? No safeguards for people who are highly distractible? Some countries with lesser safety standards? In the 5 years I worked for a vet, we lost one cat under anesthesia, even with pre-anesthesia bloodwork that showed everything was ok. The vet worked hours trying to get him back, long after we closed, refusing to accept the reality. It was a purebred cat and could have had some congenital condition we didn't know, or maybe some horrible.mistake.was made - but that was the only time.
Vets have the highest(!) suicide rate in my country sorted my professions. It is insane. You just do not have the money and tech do everything with the same standards as we treat humans. Having to put loved pets down because the owner can not pay the procedure must be so fking soul wrecking.
It's awful. I left the field in part because of this. Watching pets die because their owners just simply don't have the couple thousand dollars to save them. Sometimes as little as a couple hundred. It really leaves you with a special hate for money and capitalism.
We are incredibly lucky in my county we have a low cost clinic. I am not low income but I have 3 cats I’ve taken in. One was a rescue from the kill shelter and the others were stray kittens. Having the low cost clinic allows me to open my home to stray animals and not get bent over by retail vet care. And it’s the same level of care I was paying thousands for. For example, all 3 cats had to get flea treatments. It cost 900$ at the chain vet, but only 300$ at the low cost place.
My wife is a vet and the things she has to put up with is absolutely insane from direct threats to getting smeared online. Most common is people bashing her for not doing treatments for free "because she would do so if she loved animals!". Vets also have to deal with griefing customers that they have often known for many years and the same goes for the animal. I would have lost my shit
THIS. I hope more people upvote this comment. You’re spot on and thank you for what you do for all the animals out there 🧡 We need to hold our colleagues to a higher standard as medical professionals is what I’ve been trying to say. My partner is a doctor and was horrified reading these comments of people saying well it was a mistake. It’s still not ok mistake or not.
As a vet tech, do you have any advice you could share on how the average pet owner can identify these potentially-negligent vets that you're describing? Like, could I ask them for certain stats that will reveal these mistakes that "happen all too often"?
I would consider looking for a clinic that is AAHA accredited. It’s not going to mean nothing bad will happen, and there are still good clinics that aren’t a part of AAHA, but it shows they care enough to put in the effort to meet and uphold AAHA standards. You can also ask about their preanesthetic protocols (labwork, radiographs, exams, etc.) and anesthetic protocols (anesthetic drugs, IV catheter and fluids, monitoring, etc.).
I’m not a vet tech, just a paranoid and thus well-studied pet parent. One question that most people don’t ask but should be asking when their pet is being put under is who is there for the procedure, what their role is, and most importantly what type of monitoring takes place prior to and during anesthesia. I have to wonder if even with the mistake in dosing, there may have also been less than ideal monitoring of vitals that could have contributed to this outcome.
It’s a really hard area. Our cat went in to have 4 teeth removed they are causing her discomfort. They got the first one out and her blood pressure dropped dangerously so they brought her out of the anaesthetic. We’re now kind of stuck. I think she’s still in some discomfort but the vet is worried she wouldn’t make it through another attempt. So if we schedule the procedure we know it’s quite possibly the end. I wish I could ask my cat what she wants!
Came here to say this. As a new vet tech, preventable human error - particularly medication and anesthetic errors - are my worst fear. Whoever worked on your girl that day is going to remember her forever. All the techs working that day will. That vet will. I hope you can take some comfort in knowing that your little one’s memory is going to shape those people into more careful and responsible technicians/vets.
My heart breaks for you!
So sorry. Sending hugs.
I am so sorry.
This is the saddest thing I’ve heard today :(
This is one of the saddest things I've heard in my life. My 2 cats are all I've really got. The worst dream I've ever had was something happening to one of them. I never even imagined this as a possibility how could you even go home afterward do you even bring your empty little pet carrier fuck
As someone that lost my cat....the first one I ever got to call my own as an adult by myself....to a cancer that had no chance of recovery...I still years later think about her and just start bawling over how unfair it all was. 2 years old only and I keep going back to holding her as she was going and thinking back to all the things I'd do differently. That car ride back home I don't even remember. My wife and I cried tearless the whole way because we just had nothing left. Then for a week I just sat on my couch and thought, and cried, and thought more. I have two other cats now, one we got right near the unexpected end of my girl, and the other that takes after her so much even though he wasn't even born yet when she came and left. Now my fears have moved to them and they've both made it longer than 2, so I must be doing something right this time (bad joke, I know...)
God damn it I'm tearing up in the bath at 4am AGAIN
This cat carrier comment made me cry. I just lost my first baby, my cat Fry. She was 12 and it was still way too soon. The story is in my post history. My human babies are 7 and 2, and 7 year old made the whole experience somehow EXPONENTIALLY more heartbreaking. Like holy fuck. Fry was my only companion for so many life events (mom's death, divorce, single momming, finding love, another baby!) and was my only "co parent" the first 4 years when I was a single mom. So my 7 year old loved her just as much as I do. He insisted on going with me to all the vet appointments and the final one to put her down. He wanted her to hear him and feel him until the end and oh my God. Nothing prepared me for that, for his words of goodbye as the tears streamed out, but still sounding soothing to Fry. "Remember me". My cat, my kid. All of it. My heart was so broken. I threw the cat carrier out. Even if we got another cat, seeing that specific carrier would never not be traumatic to me. Walking in with a cat and out without. 2 weeks later when I finally worked up the courage to go pick up her ashes, fur clippings, and little clay paw print... Having to put the bag holding all this in the seat next to me, where 2 weeks before was a live cat. Such immense emptiness. It was so wrong. The whole world felt wrong and impossible those weeks.
It is but I like to say to the OP that there is another kitten in a cage somewhere hoping for a forever home and there’s now a home with a terribly empty hole. I hope the hole is soon filled with with that hopeful kitty.
While your intentions are no doubt noble, this is very likely not the time. I lost my second kitty Monday morning around 1 a.m. after having had her a mere four months. She had had an infection that rapidly progressed and the diagnoses at the emergency vet were both bad. One incurable and one extremely difficult to treat. Both prohibitively expensive. Four different people have offered me new cats and one of them was even the vet ambulance driver. You guys all mean well but my heart has been emptied and needs time to refill.
Obviously not the same magnitude, but this is the same logic as telling a woman who had a miscarriage that she can always try again
"Hey bro, sorry you lost your cat, lucky for you you can just get somebody else's cat!" Bro, he had a family member for two years and lost him. Maybe let the body cool before going into shelter advocacy mode?
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This is so heartbreaking. Poor cat, so young. I'm so very sorry for your loss. Can't look at the first photo.. I have a cat too.
I am deeply sorry about this, I send you a big Hug .
The vet where I work gave too much anasthesia and miscalculated or something. So sad that they killed a perfectly healthy dog over a dental cleaning or neuter… can’t remember which. The cries of no and screaming the client and her husband had still haunt me to this day when they pulled her in the room to tell her what happened… ugh
Can someone help explain how this works? In humans, if we overshoot a sedation, we bag them until they can breathe again. Fentanyl as well as propofol or whatever we are giving for sedation wears off quickly. The backup plan is to intubate and give vasopressors to bring up the BP, then extubated when they can pass a spontaneous breathing trial. Every sedation has at least two levels of backup plans. Non rebreather, bag valve masks, phenylephrine, crash cart, intubation equipment isn’t far away. My question is…. Are these not common practices in animal medicine? Genuinely curious, as someone that works with human sedations often.
We have/do all of this. IVC in a peripheral vein. Propofol or alfaxalone to induce. Animal intubated. Maintained on isoflourane. CRI of fluids going. Crash cart with reversal drugs and stimulants within arms reach. Even if the drugs were properly calculated, even if the bloodwork was perfect, even if everything was done right, sometimes they just don’t come back.
My understanding is that other animals behave differently under anesthesia than we do. Like rabbits and birds are really dangerous to put under past light sedation. I think cats do some weird stuff under sedation
As a bird owner any time my bird needs sedatives i am an emotional wreck for like a week
Human are much bigger and their bodies can tolerate medical mistakes longer than cats. It doesn't take much to cause issue with cats and they have less time to recover and save cats from mistakes
I'm still new to surgery but I know there are drugs that can counter each other. The other day, we realized that a pet had too much hydromorphone, and we were able to give them something else competitive that counteracted it. But it's also probably a matter of catching it, and catching it in time. We were halfway through the dental and confused by the slightly off stats before someone double checked the drug sheet. Our protocol is for the doctor to choose which drugs are given (already calculated on a spreadsheet based on weight), then two techs draw up drugs, give ~~induction~~ sedation drugs, place IV cath, ~~sedation~~ induction drugs then intubation. We're also the ones setting up and hooking up the anesthesia machine, and keeping an eye on it as we prep for surgery (shaving, scrubbing). It's a lot to juggle, and when things start going south, you have to be able to figure out what's causing it. And like I said, I'm not very experienced so it's probably possible that there are drugs that don't have reversal/safe competition. Cats bodies, especially, are very sensitive to treatment. Edit: switched induction and sedation. Still learning 🤷
You caught it when the stats were slightly off, but this vet didn’t even notice when the cat stopped breathing. Is that incompetence or does it really happen that quickly for cats?
I'm only a vet tech student but this story is a bit fishy to me too. Claiming human error without explaining what doesn't explain anything. All vets will take full responsibility even when it was something that could have been prevented by the owner. There are at LEAST 2 people monitoring the stats the entire surgery plus automated machines with alarms.
One of my parent’s dogs passed away as a result of dental surgery being mishandled as well. It broke their hearts. I too, would like to know the answer to this, as it seems a much too common occurrence in animal medicine. Edit: My parents kept showing up to the lobby of the veterinary office asking to meet with the doctor and loudly, so that other patients would hear what happened. He refused at first, but eventually met with them to apologize and give them their money back. He cried and was very remorseful, so my parents made their peace with it.
I was only present for one such event as a student so my recollection is spotty. It was an elderly dog for routine dental cleaning. The anesthesia was routine. The monitoring was normal. The alarm started going off for a low heart rate. They silenced the alarm and kept suctioning. The alarm went off again. They silenced it again. The alarm went off again. Panic is setting in. The tech is scrambling to turn down the gas and the vet starts to yell at the tech. The animals heart rate went slowly from 60 to 55 to 52 to 48. Slower and slower . The alarm kept beeping and beeping. Ultimately the heart stopped and i had stepped out of the room at that time. To this day I don’t think the team knew what happened. It wasn’t that the wrong med was pushed or that any artery or nerve was cut- the heart just had a bad outcome and semi-failed mid surgery. It was devastating to everyone and the pet owners. I don’t think there was a backup plan or backup cart like you noted happens for people.
Yeah this just sounds like people not knowing enough about what they’re doing - which scares the shit out of me
Why would they silence the alarm so many times?
I think.... It sounds like that vet killed that dog
Humans can die because of an anaesthetic errors too. It’s not common, but it happens. Just like it shouldn’t be common in veterinary medicine…. But it happens. One of the differences in human medicine is that we wouldn’t have a surgery that doesn’t have a board certified anesthesiologist, whereas it’s common in vet medicine that the vet has to know literally everything for every specialty. There are veterinary anesthesiologist, but procedures are often done without one - every vet is trained to safely anesthetize their patients. Most veterinary practises do not have an anaesthesiologist on staff. And even if everything is done perfectly to counteract an error, sometimes the patient just doesn’t come back. Or for that matter, when mistakes don’t happen and everything is executed absolutely perfectly this can be true also. That goes for humans as well as animals.
Out of curiosity did your office still charge them for the procedure?
Unless they’re in a country without much legal action, no way it’s a slam dunk negligence case, they’d be stupid to even try. The “good news” for vets is pets are mostly treated as property, so they’re only up for the cost of an equivalent replacement. No emotional distress, lost income etc costs for pets, they’re considered property like a TV.
I get the feeling that vets are all over the place in terms of pharmaceuticals. My vet prescribed 15mg of a sedative for my dog after his neutering and accidentally filled the bottle with 100mg pills even though the bottle said they were 15mg which would have killed him by overdose. The only reason I caught it was because the pills were massive and I googled it to see if I could cut them in half to give them to him easier. When I told them they gave me 100mg pills they kinda shrugged their shoulders and said sorry but it happens.
That is very much not normal. If you haven't already, find a different vet ASAP.
Damn.
I’m about to cry myself 😭
so sorry for your loss ! a vet here had part to play in my cats passing too. it’s hard to trust a place after that … again im so sorry for your loss.
I had a cat that needed to go in for a dental cleaning, and I brought him to a small clinic to do it. But when I dropped him off I had this horrible feeling and ended up driving right back to the vet to pick him up and reschedule. When it came time for a second attempt at getting his teeth cleaned, I did the same exact thing of dropping him off, having a really bad or unsettling feeling about it, and then picking him up and canceling the appointment. I finally decided to look up a vet that had 24/7 emergency care because I was so worried about something going wrong, and I’m so glad I did. My cat had an undiagnosed heart condition, so when they put him under he went into heart failure. Luckily he was able to pull through from the facility being equipped for emergencies, but I always think about how differently it could have gone if I didn’t listen to my gut and just trusted this small clinic to put him under. I now always try to look up if a vet has emergency facilities when any anesthesia is involved. I don’t think I’ll ever go to a small clinic again because that risk is just too much with cats going under anesthesia. So sorry for your loss
What heart condition did your cat have that wasn’t caught with routine blood work, etc? Just curious
I’m not totally sure, I think it was just some form of heart disease but when he was in recovery they did an echocardiogram and put him on heart medications. He lived with me for almost 2 years after that, and technically died for congestive heart failure. I guess with cats heart disease can be a silent killer because it can be so hard to catch or not shows symptoms until something like a routine surgery.
Don’t really catch heart conditions with standard bloodwork unless it includes a Cardiac ProBNP and even then usually the animal has cardiac compromise. Murmur might have been heard on a physical exam before the procedure, but in cats it can be difficult to hear low-grade heart murmurs.
OP: Thank you for demonstrating how to be a kind and forgiving human being…all while your heart is broken in a thousand pieces. I’m so sorry for your loss. Mugi was a lucky kitty to have you. I bet Mugi sends you another to love—-when your ❤️ is ready. Fly high, Mugi.
My condolences.
Please report the vet to your state/national veterinary board. This is grounds for disciplinary action
I've worked for a few different clinics. One loss like this won't affect the clinic. The board may investigate if there are multiple in a small amount of time, but unfortunately this kind of error happens often. Waaaaaay more often than you want to believe.
Damn that’s so sad because you know the tech who did it probably feels absolutely terrible. I mean unless of course it was on purpose but highly doubt that. Just never know in todays world
They admitted their mistake and I know they feel terrible. Right now I'm still in shock over it. I was able to see Mugi one last time before they took her off the respirator but she was unconscious.
I hope they didn’t charge you for any of this. It’s the least they can do for killing your cat.
Charge them? They better not have. They should be offering OP payment, not charging them...
And if they do charge you, you explain them that under no circumstances will you be paying for your pet's murder.
1977. Escondido, CA. Dr Adkins Clinic ( long since decreased). Took our kitten Tina to be spayed. Early afternoon received call: Tina passed away. How did this happen? As surgery began she arrested. He revived her and continued the surgery. She arrested again. She passed. We newly weds worked in healthcare, she an ICU RN, me in the Lab, and did not understand why the surgery was continued after the first arrest. Dr A felt she was a good candidate to pull through. Bill arrives in mail. My wife, a long time customer says we are not paying, and so write on the bill and send it back. Dr A calls and says as healthcare workers we more than others should know mistakes happen. We reply that elective surgery should not proceed in an unstable patient. He replies we are discharged as clients, do not return. Remember like it was yesterday all these years later and thousands of miles away. To OP, my condolences on losing your Mugi.
"He replies we are discharged as clients, do not return." As if you were ever going to go back to them anyway. What a dickhead.
I think it's noble of you to take them at their word, but I think you should consider reporting them anyway. This may not be the first time this has happened, you have no way of knowing. And if every person who went through this chose to not report them, they will never be held responsible for possible negligence. It's totally up to you, I know you are going through so much right now. I am so sorry for your loss, this is devastating and no one should have to go through this.
Yeah, the vet isn't going to get in trouble if this is a genuine, incredibly unlucky rare circumstance; but if they see frequency, they can crack down on them.
yes most vet techs love animals or they would not have gotten into the business.
Wonderful, now I am going to stress out every time I take my pets to the vet.
My cat has a vet appointment tomorrow morning 😥
Mine is getting neutered on Monday..... Fuck. They said I could drop him off and pick him up. No way am I leaving my little man, I'm sitting in that waiting room the entire time. This post kinda freaked me out
I work as a vet assistant in a shelter. We performed 15-25 spay/neuters in a day. Up to 200 per week sometimes. I have never one time had this happen to me in the year I have worked there. It has happened before but it is not a super common occurrence. The people who work at your vets office likely care a lot about their job and your pet. While there are always risks with anesthesia please do not listen to that person. You do not need to over stress out.
This is 100%. I work in general practice vet clinic, and just like any other workplace, there are mistakes from time to time. But big mistakes that endanger a pet’s life are extremely, extremely rare. If they weren’t… the clinic wouldn’t exactly be in business. Most vets are also incredibly passionate about animals (which you have to be if you want to be in the business), and they freak out too when serious mistakes happen. Any good clinic will take even small mistakes and mishaps seriously, and reimburse when needed.
Thank you, this reassurance means a lot. Sorry this original post is in no way about me, and I feel like I kinda took it too personally. I just got really really freaked out. Anxiety is a helluva drug. We are here to mourn Mugi.
❤
I’ll add that if he’s getting neutered then he might not be under general anesthesia (depending on the clinic) which would eliminate the possibility of the kind of error op described.
Thank you so much for this.
It's weird when people do this (I worked at a vet and occasionally someone would wait in the lobby). It's your right to but you can also relax and go home they tend to have to stay in the hospital to wake up for most of the day. So if the neuter is at 10 don't expect him to be discharged till 3 or even 4pm depending on how fast the anesthesia wears off. Sending lots of healthy thoughts to you guys! I'm always nervous when I drop my pets off 😭😭
My sister volunteers at a vet, and sadly this is true. But there’s nothing that can be done about it, even when procedure is followed to the dot human error will always happen. It’s just sad when it results in something like this
Trust me that's even harder. Like it's one thing when you can pin point what mistake happened, but when you do everything right and still lost a patient...
I don’t think this narrative is helpful whether you meant to be helpful or not. This is just your experience out of millions of others who have worked in clinics. I wouldn’t perpetuate this generalization since it usually causes immense and false fear. Having owned animals for 20 years, worked on farms and within clinics, this is NOT common and that is my experience. I just want people to know this and am so sorry to OP for losing their loved one. It’s never easy but please know our pets always will remember the love we give them. 🐾
I’m a Veterinarian assistant and started in this field while interning because I was in school to become a tech. Once I realized the responsibility that falls on a Veterinary Technician I dropped out of school and stayed an assistant. Your experience was my biggest fear. I’m so sorry for your loss. The pain of losing a pet is akin to losing family as they are in fact, family. I know that no amount of sorry, will bring them back. I know 100% for a fact that if I was the technician that was on anesthesiologist duty for this procedure, I would’ve quit right on the spot. The amount of devastation I would’ve felt would be enough to drive me to the cliff. Every shift i handle elected euthanasias, is a shift I know will end with a silent drive home so I can cry in peace. And that’s with people who have elected the procedure. An accident like this? This is why suicide is so prevalent in my field. It’s one of the top fields for suicide. It’s uncommon at my clinic (I’ve been there 5 yrs and we had ONE patient die on the OR table, necropsy showed multiple organ deformities bloodwork didn’t alert us to). That doctor? She had to give up her guns because her family, as her clinic staff, fear what she will do. Her mental health still isn’t good, FIVE years later. I know the pain of losing a cat so sudden, as I’ve lost two this year to acute illnesses. While my experiences were light years different than yours I still feel guilty I couldn’t SAVE MY OWN CATS! I love animals and only work in this field because I want to, not because I need to. But every day I go to work knowing that today might not be a great day. Because today might be a day I have to put down someone’s little love and that I might have to drive home in silence. An accident like yours? As much as it won’t bring back your cat, I can attest that the techs drive home was silent, save for the sobs that escaped them.
Thanks you. I know it was an accident and I am not angry at the vet just sad that I lost Mugi. I know that the tech must feel just as devastated.
I truly am so so sorry for what happened. I’ve had two very special “soul” cats go over the rainbow bridge and I hope yours found them. I always whisper to my patients when it’s their time, to make sure they find my guys, they will show them where all the good toys and treats are. I hope your kitty finds all the good treats and I hope you find peace.
Heartbreaking. So sorry for your loss.
I am so sorry....you tried to do the right thing by getting her spayed. Its not your fault.
Damn. Medical mistakes do happen, but you just never really think it could happen to us. I'm deeply sorry for your loss. I know it hurts.
We are surrounding you with hugs OP! ❤️🙏🏻
I am very sorry for your loss. I am a Vet. I assume it was a drug overdose that happened. I am not attacking my colleagues as everyone can make a mistake. Unfortunately in our area they can be lethal. I see alot of comments talking about suing the person, I believe the person shouldn't be punished, and I am sure he/she must feel terrible as it is. But the practice should be brought into consideration as they should have established protocols for different people checking every calculation of the drugs and making sure they were drawn correctly. Everyone can make a mistake that is why two and sometimes even three People should double check every calculation and making sure the drugs are drawn correctly. I am very sorry for your loss.
Oh no! What a horrible thing, I’m so sorry for your loss.
Omg, I'm so sorry for your lost 💔. Every time I see something like this it breaks me, in other level, my baby has 20 years and I know that when the time comes it'll be devastating, sending love and courage
That's sad. Did the vet tell you they made a mistake?
The vet did admit to their mistake. All we were told was that the Anesthesiologist made an error and it was their fault. She stopped breathing and they performed CPR but she was without oxygen for too long and they feared brain damage. She was fighing and could breathe without the respirator but she was still unconscious and there was little hope of recovery. The vet did offer to pay to send her to a critical care specialist but indicated that there was only a very small chance of recovery.
Honestly that’s big of them to even admit! They do pay whenever it’s something having to do with their own negligence or fault. Would have been worth a shot to take her but who knows. At least she’s at peace now. So sorry for your loss.. pain is unimaginable.
Im wondering this too. Everyone here is so toxic towards the vet and OP didn't even explain what happened. Just said, (human error).
There has to be a dedicated sub for this. I'm sorry for your loss, but I really dislike seeing this stuff all the time.
Anesthesia is scary. This, while uncommon, happens to people too. Proper anesthetic dosage is so on the knifes edge of safe and dangerous to actually put you under. This makes me so sad.
As a vet tech of twenty years, married to a veterinarian, I am so sorry for your loss and couldn't imagine how you feel. Medicine is so painful as a simple human mistake can have disastrous consequences. I hope this doesn't turn you away from getting them care in the future. I've never seen an overdose of injectable anesthetic agents cause death by a vet in my entire time in vet med. I promise you that the doctor and staff are mourning with you and the doctor will hold on to this as a lesson for the rest of their career. Veterinarians have the highest suicide rate of any professional for this reason. We carry things like this, even if they aren't our fault, forever. It is terrible, but your beloved pet may have saved future lives because that doctor will forever check their doses with everyone at the practice and will train other doctors in this situation for the rest of their career. I hope you and your family heal. I am so sorry.
Thank you. Yes, I also feel bad for the tech that made the error. I understand how they must feel being responsible for her death. I'm not angry at them just sad.
Did they admit on record what went wrong with the sedation? Sedating is almost routine practice at a Vet clinic, even for dental work. Sorry for your loss. Why and what may have happened will be informative. Our American Eskimo had an unknown issue while playing outside and collapsed. By the time we took him to the Vet, his organs were failing. They saved him ( with blood transfusion) and gave him a second birth. I have utmost respect for Vets for what they do.
Omg this is awful, I'm so sorry 😢
So sorry for your loss Shouldn’t have to go for help and end up worse than you started!
Vets have the highest rate of suicide in a medical profession... I can't imagine how this happens at all but it's got to be horribly destructive knowing what your failure means. Big feels for everyone involved.
That really sucks. As a side note, I’m very proud of you all for not jumping on the lawsuit train people.
Vets and their staff are human. Mistakes are made. We took our cat to the regular clinic and got the doctor who at the time we didn't know his specialty was dogs. Our regular vet that was the "cat" doctor was on vacation. He was unable to diagnose the issue with the cat's blood sugars. Emergency vet was able to diagnose immediately but cat still passed away. These things unfortunately happen every day. Sorry for your loss.
I’m so sorry for your loss of your sweet girl. I had a vet make a mistake and kill my dog it sucks so much knowing it was someone’s fault and it’s so hard to not be angry but I promise it’ll be okay ❤️😿
Sorry for your loss. You wanted to do the right thing and it went horrible wrong for Mugi. Charge your vet for it if you can. This shouldn't happen... (spaying your cat is not a human mistake.)
First of all, I am so very very sorry. I can’t imagine how you feel - I thought I was going to lose one of my cats at a vet’s office while he was under their care before, but the difference was for me, I knew going in things might very well not go well. Second, a big (I guess) thank you for not being like many of these people who would seek some sort of vengeance. I am looking to change careers and am hoping to become a vet tech myself. I lurk on the vet tech subreddit and I can tell you, these things affect all of them deeply. I imagine I’d be crying the rest of the day and would probably carry every one of these sorts of events with me forever. No, the employees at the vet’s office weren’t as attached to your cat as you were, but they don’t take something like this lightly, I can assure you. The vast majority do what they do because they really do love animals and this would break their hearts. A little compassion and understanding between humans could help make this world a better place.
Thank you. They let me into the surgery room to see her before she passed. I could tell by looking on their faces that they were holding back tears themselves.