sharon1961

Pappillion kisses, Thank you so much for your thoughts. And i am so sorry to hear of your bad experience with your dog and understand fully. We want whats best!

Jemappelle, Yes, she is on the maximum dose of fluid pills and 0thers. Her resting heart rate is around 70BPM, her lungs are now fairly free of fluid on the max tablets, but she has a cough. Te cough may be more due to her enlarged heart leaning on bronchial tubes. Your dogs are beautiful.

Hi all, It is with a heavy heart i post this comment... My beautiful little cavalier "ruby" is 13 years old and in stage 4 Mitral valve disease and is deaf. She hasnt been able to go for even short walks for a long time due to getting worn out and having breathing issues. She is currently on the maximum medication which is JUST holding the fluid off her lungs, but she has a large fluid belly. The vet told me 6 mths ago , she may have 4 months at best. The last few weeks she has been sleeping a lot, but cant get comfortable and tries to sleep sitting up ,has gotten a bad double ear infection and also is currently suffering with gastritis which is now mostly under control but very painful. I am wanting to have her euthanised at home when the time comes, my daughter (a paramedic)is begging me to let her go before she suffers. She believes her heart will fail and she will "drown" in her own fluid through the night and suffer. To others who have gone through this cavies, should i let her go now? Or do you believe she still has a little quality of life left. It breaks my heart but i want the right thing for her. Thank you so much in advance

Thank you so much Westiemum for your very kind words and your valued advice, I so wish I could turn back time and trust my instinct.

Thanks for the kind words and I am so sorry to hear you have experienced loss with concerns for care as well, it just makes it so much much harder wondering if they could have lived. I had 3 cavies and until recently we only had an AEC which was 50 mins drive from us, the next nearest 3 .5 hours. I have used that in the past and was not really happy with the care received but they were all we had. and all was ok. This vet AEC has just opened and 10 mins from home so have never been there before then. We have some GREAT vets here but not after hours AEC. I would have been very happy to take him to the the further away AEC if I knew at that time they had limited equipment and time that night... i believe they should have told us this while waiting and given us the opportunity to go. I will Never go to this AEC again, and I only have one other option so will use that service in the future, and just have to pray it is not a life and death time urgent emergency. I really worry now for my other dogs if an emergency occurs.

Thank you Dame, I feel the AEC was not equipped to deal with 2 very sick dogs at the same time and my little dog just didnt get the support ANY support he needed. Sadly we rang first and they said bring him in, and then had to wait an hour for the vet. I feel they should have given us the opportunity to take him elsewhere to another AEC rather than just let him die. I always put trust in people, and until now never spoke up when i thought things were not right and am just gutted that this led to the death of my very much loved friend in such a cruel way. The grief i feel has been much worse knowing what happened that night was so wrong, and I am finding it very hard to move forward. I realize there is not much we can do now as nothing will bring him back, but I am so sad and angry that I am going to fight hard to make sure no other little dog has to suffer in this way. I hope this thread will help others in the same situation, and have give all available steps i have found for recourse above so far, and at the end, I will name and shame this practice.... as I feel they dont deserve the option to hide under a veil of non transparency , as they tried very hard to do with me regarding his notes/reports. I feel VERY strongly that every pet owner has the right to see if there pet was well managed and everything that could be done, was done in the event of their death, and will try as best I can to make that happen. We have that right as humans, and we should also have that right with our little furry friends. Cheers Sharon

My plan is to ask for a meeting with the vet manager of the practice when she is back from holidays in Aug. In that meeting I will ask for an apology, and force to them implement REAL procedures to ensure this does not happen again. I put put in a complaint to the Veterinary board, but know that will not accomplish anything

Thank you everyone for your lovely words of condolence, this little dog was family and much loved by our family and especially my fatally ill son, we are all still devastated 3 weeks on. The vet in question used the excuse , the AVA regulation stops them handing out notes/reports and their hands are tied. Yesterday I emailed the vet again asking for his case notes, Today I called the Aus Vet Asoc, and was lucky enough to talk for over an hour with a lovely vet who listened to what I witnessed at the vet clinic, what i saw my little boy go through and gave her all the info i had. I asked her about the AVA regulation the vet said stops them handing out notes and was told that was untrue, no veterinary body has any law or regulation regarding this and vets are free to share the notes with dogs owners or not, so the vet practice lied to me. She suggested as others have above, that i continue to email the vet asking for the notes, try to organise an in person meeting with them, ask them to send the information to another vet in which I can organise for them to meet with me and discuss what happened. She also strongly suggested I put in a complaint to the Vet surgeons board in my state as she feels the information I have shared shows there is a need for an investigation into the care provided to my dog. The problem is that they take 12 months to investigate. Today i received a call from the vets saying under no circumstances will they release the records, so I asked them to send the records to my usual vet and told them I was going to make a complaint to the board. 20 mins later they rang and agreed to give me the records!!!! But to our despair our fears were confirmed, after waiting so long (an hour) as they had a very sick dog on a ventilator, , the vet came to see our boy and said she would admit him, do blood tests, xrays, give pain and anti nausea meds along with fluids which the records show she did at 7;30pm, and my dog received NO MORE TREATMENT nor were any more obs taken and recorded up until the moment he died in our arms desperately struggling to breathe at 3am. He received none of the treatment the AVA thought we would find on his records with suspected shock, no warmed blanket, no oxygen, no ventilator, no blood transfusions ... nothing after 7.30 pm, they obviously just let our boy die , Too busy? Only one ventilator used by the other dog?

Hi all, Recently we lost our much loved cavalier King Charles Spaniel due to an illness at the vets. We took him into an AEC at 6.30 on a Friday night when he was just slightly not himself/quiet and refused to eat a much loved treat at that time. During this time at the vets we were concerned about a few things that happened at the vet but stupidly thought he would be in good hands so left him in their care. We rand with his symptoms before we went in and they said bring him in which we did immediately. We then had to wait in the waiting room for an hour on arrival with no one even looking at our dog because they said they had a very sick dog on a ventilator who needed their attention. When the vet finally came, it was another half an hour after chatting that she looked at our dog, with her constantly going off to deal with the other dog. 8 Hours later our beloved little boy was gone and we dont know why, the vet said she didnt know as all xrays on lungs, heart and stomach and blood tests were fine earlier. A few hours after admission 12.30 am he was pooing blood so they diagnosed hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, the vet rand to tell me this also saying his breathing was a bit laboured. Our other 2 Cavies have also had this over the years and was told by another vet it was another common problem with cavies and my other 2 spent a few days in the vets (another one) on fluids and antibiotics and recovered well so I assumed he would as well. The vet then rang at 3am to say come say goodbye he was dying, we found him struggling hard to breathe and almost unconscious and in a great deal of distress with no oxygen ...nothing. We made the choice to end his suffering after the vet said his organs were shutting down and he would not live much longer and no hope. The vet said she had never seen a dog die from hemorrhagic gastroenteritis and she had no idea what happened or why he died, saying "something else must have been going on... to say we were and still are devastated 3 weeks later is an understatement. In the following days, what happened to our boy haunted me so I rang and asked the vet practice manager to see a detailed invoice and the notes , they refused to let me see them or anything. I emailed her and have asked politely 3 times and they will not respond. When our dog was struggling to breathe and distressed at 3am he started to fit so I went and knocked on the door where the vet was saying "please come, something is happening to him " and the vet nurse snapped at me saying " The vet is busy with a very sick dog and she will come when she can". My questions are.. Why was he left to suffer for so long struggling to breathe with no oxygen and no ventilator to ease his suffering? Did they only have one oxygen /ventilator which they were using for the other dog? Did they neglect to care for my dog being busy with another one? Why did they say "Bring him in when i rang" if they were clearly too busy, why not say that and suggest we go to another AEC? My questions are.. Why was he left to suffer for so long struggling to breathe with no oxygen and no ventilator to ease his suffering? Did they only have one oxygen /ventilator which they were using for the other dog? Why wont they let me see the notes to see what treatment he had? Why wont they give me a detailed bill? How can i get to see his notes/report, what do i need to do, FOI, Lawyer? Is there any body that can investigate this? They said they dont give out or show clients the report/notes. A few years ago I always got to see the notes, detailed bill. it seems this is a new "rule" to stop clients identifying neglect/malpractice but surely we are entitled to know if our dog was cared for and things paid for were actually carried out.? I dont feel I can move on unless I know they did everything they could It seemed he was was pretty much left to die. PS.. the other "very sick" dog survived, my little Egg didnt.