Taking Aust. Vets To Court?

[Staranais]

jath:

Thank You Sparkly for sharing that, You have to TELL people & talk it out loud in places like in the supermarket when you are waiting in line to get served where EVERYONE can hear you, word of mouth & DON'T STOP telling people that's the only way at present in Australia you can help others by taking their precious members of their family to them. Not giving up. will keep everyone informed & tell the world.

This could get you into trouble for defamation. Ask you solicitor about it. It would be particularly unwise if you are proceeding with a court case.

Yes, 100% agree. If you're unhappy with the way you or your animal have been treated by a vet, you should speak up - but there are better ways to do it. Make your complaints to the vet themselves, to the vet's boss, to the vet council, and/or to your solicitor. Complaining on an internet forum or complaining loudly to strangers in the supermarket will do nothing at best, at worst it will give the vet a case against you for defamation.

[kellyxley]

I acknowledge what you are saying about defamation cases and not whining on forums, but what is a legitimate next step?

I took my dog to the vets for grooming and a couple of hours later, I received a phone call asking if I could go to the vets and help. I was advised that my dog had escaped and was running along the dual carriageway outside the vets. She apparently wouldn't go back to them and wanted me to go along as they thought that she would run to me and they could capture her again! When I got there, they had managed to recapture her and she was safe. It turned out that they had gouged her side with the clippers and she had bolted and run away. Her side had been stitched and she had been given painkillers and antibiotics, so she was OK but still shaken. They could not give me an explanation of how or why she had got out of their control and escaped outside.

I spoke to the Vet Registration Board in WA, the Australian Veterinary Association, the Veterinary Nurses Council and the Citizens Advice Bureau. No one was able to help as it was out of their remit. I was not seeking any damages or legal action or even an apology, I just wanted them to have to put measures in place to prevent it happening again to someone else. It has all turned out well in the end but could have been much, much worse. They may have rectified matters, but they are still practicing at the same location and nothing may have changed.

If none of the regulating or professional bodies are able to assist in resolving the matter and we are not allowed to name and shame, what else can we do other than choosing not to provide them with out custom? It just doesn't seem fair.

Kelly

[spottychick]

Staranais - I've done all that and more and it's made not one iota of difference.

So I tell people what happened and at which vets - one person at a time.

There's nothing to stop you telling people you don't recommend a particular vet as long as you don't make it a public announcement and are careful about how you say it. Its just the same as saying "dont go to that shop because their clothes are badly made". That aint defamation - that's just bad business and the consequences of it.

That's called "word of mouth" and it can either be positive or negative. At present it seems like the only option anyone has when a vet is useless or worse. And it's what I do about that vet I went to. Anyone I know asks me which vet to go to I tell them which vets NOT to go to.

In fact, I could probably go public with certain parts of what happened because they are FACT and TRUE (and verifiable) as long as I didn't then publicly say "So they are a useless vet" because that moves into the area of defamation. People can draw their own conclusions from the facts tho. So presenting facts is NOT defamation - as long as they are true.

Making wild accusations that you aren't 100% certain you can back up is what's risky. So it's better to not say it

So Kelly - there's nothing at all to stop you telling people those facts you posted and who that vet is - but I'd do it one to one rather than say on a forum. Annoying isn't it.

But anyone should feel free to PM me if you live in Tas and want to know which vets I would "recommend"

[tdierikx]

I'm with you SC... I tend to point people to the really good vet clinics in the area, and let them make up their own minds as to why I don't recommend others...

T.

[Bluefairy]

Sorry this is about a cat not a dog.

I took my very sick cat to a vet I had never been to before. I had no idea there were two vets in this town. I ended up going to the wrong one.....My cat was vomiting, had diarrhea, and had stopped eating. The vet wanted to keep her overnight. He put her on a drip for 2hrs and as she looked better told us to pick her up. She didn't look right, but thought maybe it as just the shock of it all. She got worse overnight and was again rushed to the vets, they xrayed her and said she had a bowel blockage, they gave her about 3 enemas over 2 days, she was still refusing to eat and was losing weight fast. So the vet operated on her thinking she had a blocked bowel. He found nothing. After another 2 days he told us she was fine and we could pick her up. She was lethargic, was a mass of skin and bone, and not moving. Her eyes were almost popping out her head.

I managed to find the right vet in the same town and rushed her in. She was isolated, given IV fluids as she was so dehydrated, they said it was touch and go if she would survive. They ran a load of BTs, Urine and fecal tests. They also opened her up again and found the stitches the other vet had used had become infected, in fact my vet said they hadn't used that type of thread in years as it was found to cause a lot of infections. The tests showed she had a disease called Panleukopenia, a feline form of the Parvovirus. The only thing they could do was treat with AB's and fluids. She pulled through ok. She has no muscle mass in her hind quarters since then. The vets don't know why. My cat started out weighing 6kg and she went down to 3.4kg when the new vets got her.

My vet also had a few words with this idiot vet, to ask what the hell he had done to this poor cat. He also never isolated my cat, so all the cats that were in the back would have been infected with this too. I wrote a letter of complaint to the idiot vet and he rang me to find out what had happened. I told him he nearly killed my cat because he never did any tests to find the actual cause before he opened her up. I never heard from him again, not even a bill. I always warm people away from there and tell them my story. I never took it further.

I have also sued for Medical negligence from an OB, resulting in the death of our son. It took 7 years of hell, heartbreak, mental anguish, etc to finally say enough is enough and we settled out of court. We got a pittance after the lawyers took their fee's. I would never go down that road again. It is so NOT worth it. We didn't do it for the money we wanted to rip her heart out......The only compensation was the hospital that hired the OB from NZ, never used her again. Thats a blessing at least.

BF

[Mila's Mum]

These lawyers deal more with animal cruelty cases, but may be able to point you in the right direction of a suitable lawyer for your purposes

http://www.bleats.com.au/

[yap]

Over here it's more usual to complain to the vet council, who will penalise the vet if they find they've been unreasonably negligent & can't defend their actions satisfactorily. I presume Aussie would be similar. I have no idea if you could sue a vet in a civil court, I guess you probably could, but I'd think you'd have more chance of getting satisfaction through the Vet Council.

Yes we got reply back yesterday from vet board, so far only vets response which there is a large number of lies in. We can however prove quite a lot for the wrongful death of our beautiful girl. Its been 5mths now & still finding it very difficult to let go of all the suffering witnessed. Only found 1 Solicitor who will has successfully sued a human doctor. he will take case on. Does anyone know of any solicitors that will take on Vets?

goodness you have had more success than i have.

ive spent 3 years reporting two doctors for my mums misdignonis and 12 weeks of agnony with a broken hip. by the time she was finally sent to a hospital she had gangrene and beyond saving. n all i get for three years of fighting for justice for her suffering is a letter of the heath commission that both doctors were found have have failed in their duty of care and will receive retraining and COUNCELLING FOR THEIR DISTRESS n im forking out 175 a session trying to cope with my failure to protect her from the system

best of luck for you.

no tv was interested in taking it up or any idea how to sue them so they would need some real counseling for distress which i think they so richly deserve.

as for vets.. gee one of my girls hemoraged overnight after being desexed and all i got from the self declared "Health Care Professional" who had roundly told me how dare i try to self diagnose my bitch when i brought her in and said i thought she had pymetra and wanted her desexed. n then made the exact same diagnosis. yes he did desex her. pity he didnt tie or seal the arteries properly though. i found her bled to death a week after the op.

no mention of refund for killing her .

didnt know u could?

best of luck i really wish you well.

ummm any chance that solicitor might be intereested in doing something for my mum?

my doctor had told me i have to drop it as the stress will kill me.. but cant stop wondering how many others go unprotected while those two are still doctors

Well thank god SOMEONE understands. There are truly millions out there who aren't coping with what these b have done to their lives & getting away with it.

[yap]

These lawyers deal more with animal cruelty cases, but may be able to point you in the right direction of a suitable lawyer for your purposes

http://www.bleats.com.au/

Thanks sooooooooooo much.

[yap]

Sorry this is about a cat not a dog.

I took my very sick cat to a vet I had never been to before. I had no idea there were two vets in this town. I ended up going to the wrong one.....My cat was vomiting, had diarrhea, and had stopped eating. The vet wanted to keep her overnight. He put her on a drip for 2hrs and as she looked better told us to pick her up. She didn't look right, but thought maybe it as just the shock of it all. She got worse overnight and was again rushed to the vets, they xrayed her and said she had a bowel blockage, they gave her about 3 enemas over 2 days, she was still refusing to eat and was losing weight fast. So the vet operated on her thinking she had a blocked bowel. He found nothing. After another 2 days he told us she was fine and we could pick her up. She was lethargic, was a mass of skin and bone, and not moving. Her eyes were almost popping out her head.

I managed to find the right vet in the same town and rushed her in. She was isolated, given IV fluids as she was so dehydrated, they said it was touch and go if she would survive. They ran a load of BTs, Urine and fecal tests. They also opened her up again and found the stitches the other vet had used had become infected, in fact my vet said they hadn't used that type of thread in years as it was found to cause a lot of infections. The tests showed she had a disease called Panleukopenia, a feline form of the Parvovirus. The only thing they could do was treat with AB's and fluids. She pulled through ok. She has no muscle mass in her hind quarters since then. The vets don't know why. My cat started out weighing 6kg and she went down to 3.4kg when the new vets got her.

My vet also had a few words with this idiot vet, to ask what the hell he had done to this poor cat. He also never isolated my cat, so all the cats that were in the back would have been infected with this too. I wrote a letter of complaint to the idiot vet and he rang me to find out what had happened. I told him he nearly killed my cat because he never did any tests to find the actual cause before he opened her up. I never heard from him again, not even a bill. I always warm people away from there and tell them my story. I never took it further.

I have also sued for Medical negligence from an OB, resulting in the death of our son. It took 7 years of hell, heartbreak, mental anguish, etc to finally say enough is enough and we settled out of court. We got a pittance after the lawyers took their fee's. I would never go down that road again. It is so NOT worth it. We didn't do it for the money we wanted to rip her heart out......The only compensation was the hospital that hired the OB from NZ, never used her again. Thats a blessing at least.

BF

yes its pretty tough but like you said "enough is enough" I,m glad you are Telling people not to go there.

[Lhok]

one of the local vets in my neck of the woods has only just been banned from practicing after years of malpractice. The rest of the vets in our area complained and they got a vet nurse who was working at that practice to take photos of what was going on.

The saga went on for almost 6 years, and during that time many people's pets died but they didn't get anything after the vet board decided to shut him down.

Good luck though for your case.

--Lhok

[yap]

I acknowledge what you are saying about defamation cases and not whining on forums, but what is a legitimate next step?

I took my dog to the vets for grooming and a couple of hours later, I received a phone call asking if I could go to the vets and help. I was advised that my dog had escaped and was running along the dual carriageway outside the vets. She apparently wouldn't go back to them and wanted me to go along as they thought that she would run to me and they could capture her again! When I got there, they had managed to recapture her and she was safe. It turned out that they had gouged her side with the clippers and she had bolted and run away. Her side had been stitched and she had been given painkillers and antibiotics, so she was OK but still shaken. They could not give me an explanation of how or why she had got out of their control and escaped outside.

I spoke to the Vet Registration Board in WA, the Australian Veterinary Association, the Veterinary Nurses Council and the Citizens Advice Bureau. No one was able to help as it was out of their remit. I was not seeking any damages or legal action or even an apology, I just wanted them to have to put measures in place to prevent it happening again to someone else. It has all turned out well in the end but could have been much, much worse. They may have rectified matters, but they are still practicing at the same location and nothing may have changed.

If none of the regulating or professional bodies are able to assist in resolving the matter and we are not allowed to name and shame, what else can we do other than choosing not to provide them with out custom? It just doesn't seem fair.

Kelly

OMG!!!! :rolleyes:

Edited October 27, 2010 by yap

[yap]

I acknowledge what you are saying about defamation cases and not whining on forums, but what is a legitimate next step?

I took my dog to the vets for grooming and a couple of hours later, I received a phone call asking if I could go to the vets and help. I was advised that my dog had escaped and was running along the dual carriageway outside the vets. She apparently wouldn't go back to them and wanted me to go along as they thought that she would run to me and they could capture her again! When I got there, they had managed to recapture her and she was safe. It turned out that they had gouged her side with the clippers and she had bolted and run away. Her side had been stitched and she had been given painkillers and antibiotics, so she was OK but still shaken. They could not give me an explanation of how or why she had got out of their control and escaped outside.

I spoke to the Vet Registration Board in WA, the Australian Veterinary Association, the Veterinary Nurses Council and the Citizens Advice Bureau. No one was able to help as it was out of their remit. I was not seeking any damages or legal action or even an apology, I just wanted them to have to put measures in place to prevent it happening again to someone else. It has all turned out well in the end but could have been much, much worse. They may have rectified matters, but they are still practicing at the same location and nothing may have changed.

If none of the regulating or professional bodies are able to assist in resolving the matter and we are not allowed to name and shame, what else can we do other than choosing not to provide them with out custom? It just doesn't seem fair.

Kelly

you hit the nail on the head! exactly right. it doesnt seem fair. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Edited October 27, 2010 by yap

[Everythings Shiny]

Out of curiosity, what was the drug your dog was put on that was banned?

Florinef- states for human use only by the tga

I have seen lots of dogs prescribed this, I am not aware that its banned???

[yap]

Over here it's more usual to complain to the vet council, who will penalise the vet if they find they've been unreasonably negligent & can't defend their actions satisfactorily. I presume Aussie would be similar. I have no idea if you could sue a vet in a civil court, I guess you probably could, but I'd think you'd have more chance of getting satisfaction through the Vet Council.

Yes we got reply back yesterday from vet board, so far only vets response which there is a large number of lies in. We can however prove quite a lot for the wrongful death of our beautiful girl. Its been 5mths now & still finding it very difficult to let go of all the suffering witnessed. Only found 1 Solicitor who will has successfully sued a human doctor. he will take case on. Does anyone know of any solicitors that will take on Vets?

goodness you have had more success than i have.

ive spent 3 years reporting two doctors for my mums misdignonis and 12 weeks of agnony with a broken hip. by the time she was finally sent to a hospital she had gangrene and beyond saving. n all i get for three years of fighting for justice for her suffering is a letter of the heath commission that both doctors were found have have failed in their duty of care and will receive retraining and COUNCELLING FOR THEIR DISTRESS n im forking out 175 a session trying to cope with my failure to protect her from the system

best of luck for you.

no tv was interested in taking it up or any idea how to sue them so they would need some real counseling for distress which i think they so richly deserve.

as for vets.. gee one of my girls hemoraged overnight after being desexed and all i got from the self declared "Health Care Professional" who had roundly told me how dare i try to self diagnose my bitch when i brought her in and said i thought she had pymetra and wanted her desexed. n then made the exact same diagnosis. yes he did desex her. pity he didnt tie or seal the arteries properly though. i found her bled to death a week after the op.

no mention of refund for killing her .

didnt know u could?

best of luck i really wish you well.

ummm any chance that solicitor might be intereested in doing something for my mum?

my doctor had told me i have to drop it as the stress will kill me.. but cant stop wondering how many others go unprotected while those two are still doctors

Well thank god SOMEONE understands. There are truly millions out there who aren't coping with what these b have done to their lives & getting away with it.

try BLEATS good luck

Edited October 28, 2010 by yap

[Moselle]

Only found 1 Solicitor who will has successfully sued a human doctor. he will take case on. Does anyone know of any solicitors that will take on Vets?

There you go - you said you've found one so why keep asking for another one? Just go and have a consult with him/her.

All the best. It would be really hard to lose a dog and think objectively.

The poster is thinking objectively but when you know that the wrong thing has been done you do want to take a stand to ensure that this sort of thing doesnt repeat itself but unfortunately without strong evidence it can prove to be an expensive and fruitless battle.

[matilda1]

Meds commonly prescribed for Canine Addisons include Florinef, its generic Fludrocortisone and Percorten V.

Florinef - Fludrocortisone - The generic for the brand name product Florinef is Fludrocortisone, a tablet form corticosteroid used specifically to treat Addisons Disease. Florinef should be given carefully, electrolyte levels and kidney function should also be watched while on fludrocortisone.

[yap]

Only found 1 Solicitor who will has successfully sued a human doctor. he will take case on. Does anyone know of any solicitors that will take on Vets?

There you go - you said you've found one so why keep asking for another one? Just go and have a consult with him/her.

All the best. It would be really hard to lose a dog and think objectively.

The poster is thinking objectively but when you know that the wrong thing has been done you do want to take a stand to ensure that this sort of thing doesnt repeat itself but unfortunately without strong evidence it can prove to be an expensive and fruitless battle.

Edited October 29, 2010 by yap