I have two doberman puppies (now 4 1/2 months old). The one I'm
writing about is "Reddy" (alittle girl).
When they were 11 weeks old (mid Nov) I took them into my vet and had
they're ears cropped. I had scheduled this for after a business trip
(so 2 weeks prior). One and half weeks later - stitches came out and
the ear splints were put into place and taped for the ears to stand.
On December 3rd (Friday), the ear pieces were off the ears and no where
in sight when I woke them from their crate. I wasn't sure which of the
2 swallowed them, so I watched them closely everyday to see if there
were any signs of illness. On Tues. morning Reddy started to gag and
threw up one of the ear pieces. I quickly called the vet's office and
ran her in. I was scared that the other piece would get stuck in her
throat or her intestines. My vet kept dismissing my thoughts - saying
that it had been days since she had swallowed it and she wouldn't have
it in there anymore. I asked if there were a test to make sure. He
said he could do a x-ray, but that wouldn't show it because it was a
soft matter.
To make this shorter: Dec. 27th - Reddy had been throwing up and not
able to keep water down over night. I ran her to my vet with the same
concern of the ear splint being in there. He gave her a shot for
nausea, 2 bottles of pills to take and dog food for the following day.
He told me if she's still sick to bring her in the next day - drop her
off and he'll take an x-ray sometime during the day. I questioned the
orders, telling him she's going down hill with health and that I'm
really worried. He again dismissed the ear splint thought. I kept
reminding him of the splint - of when he applied them - stating that
they were really old ones - and that he hadn't ordered them for
approximately 2 years. I had told him when I came in the first time
that the piece that was thrown up was in whole - not chewed or
flattened because they were old splints. He kept telling me that lots
of dogs swallow stuff and that its not the splint.
Sorry! I know I need to make this quicker. She got sick again - he
wanted back to do xray after I said I'm heading to the hospital. Xray
showed blockage, tons of gas in stomach and in the intestine. Set my
up with a specialist later that day - which I questioned why not going
to hospital. I went, she had surgery the next day, which the vet
called me to ask if the hospital thought it was the splint. I told him
I knew it was, and that she was in surgery at the time and I'll get the
piece later back.
My baby went into shock that night, and they fought to save her. She
spent 1 week in the hospital - which cost $4,400. I pulled her out
cause she wasn't getting any better. She is having problems with her
esophragus. Its hard to swallow, hold down food, pills, and water.
She's been home 4 days - and no change. She's on 7 pills - 3 times a
day. I called the vet and told him that I am taking her out of the
hospital and that he is going to care for her for free. I took her in
3 days ago - he examined her but didn't offer any help. I recorded
most of our conversation, bringing up the fact that the ear splint were
at least 2 years old - and he was using up what he had in the back
room. Those splints couldn't be chewed down, or chewed up. I have
more - new splints from him now also. The puppies chewed them up and
they flatten. I need any advise from anyone out there that can direct
me to what I can do to go after this vet. The fact that the ear
splints were old and used on a 3 month old puppy - with the thought
they might get them off and eat them - is negligence. The discharge
hospital papers state the concern of ear splint for the blockage, the
surgery removed it, the intestine looked good.
The following paragraph - stated that the prolonged obstruction caused
severe damage to the stomach wall and created a near death situation
for Reddy after surgery was completed.
I'm looking to write a letter to the vet for the papers concerning the
ear cropping surgery, and manufacturer's name of the ear splints.
Reddy is still very sick - no change, but she's a fighter cause she's
still with us. I'm tempted to take her back to the hospital this week
cause of her condition and of the time it takes to care for her - I
can't always do it. We thought she'd be better this coming week and I
could take her with. But, she's still very sick - throwing up and
making noises cause she can't swallow/breath very well. I was told by
the hospital doctor that she'll get better - just hang in there for a
couple weeks. They need time for the throat to mellow down in order to
do an endoscope to see into the esophragus and stomach. Then we'll
know more - but - thats 1-2 weeks out. Our lives are on hold and in
turmoil.
ADVISE..................................PLEASE.... .................
Lois

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have two doberman puppies (now 4 1/2 months old). The one I'm
writing about is "Reddy" (alittle girl).
snip
My baby went into shock that night, and they fought to save her. She
spent 1 week in the hospital - which cost $4,400. I pulled her out
cause she wasn't getting any better. She is having problems with her
esophragus. Its hard to swallow, hold down food, pills, and water.
She's been home 4 days - and no change. She's on 7 pills - 3 times a
day. I called the vet and told him that I am taking her out of the
hospital and that he is going to care for her for free. I took her in
3 days ago - he examined her but didn't offer any help. I recorded
most of our conversation, bringing up the fact that the ear splint were
at least 2 years old - and he was using up what he had in the back
room. Those splints couldn't be chewed down, or chewed up. I have
more - new splints from him now also. The puppies chewed them up and
they flatten. I need any advise from anyone out there that can direct
me to what I can do to go after this vet.

snip

You need to take a deep breath and try to separate the emotional from the
practical. You say you want to "go after" the vet, but what do you expect to
get from that? You could hire a lawyer and sue him, but the most you're
going to get is the value of the dog, and you'll likely pay the lawyer more
than that for the trouble. Chances are you won't get a lawyer to take the
case, anyway, unless you've got a lot of money you're willing to burn.

You could try small claims court, but if you're this emotional, and the
doctor presents his case rationally and logically (and he's got the medical
records to back up what he's saying) you may not have much chance of
winning. And if you win, what can you win? Once again, the value of the dog,
maximum. And they may not consider even that if the dog recovers.
Unfortunately, dogs are considered property, so you're not going to get more
than you paid originally, no matter how much you spent or how emotionally
valuable the dog is to you as a pet or companion.

And consider that if you take the case to court, there's going to be some
pointing at you as far as responsibility, too. The fact that the splints
aren't digestible probably isn't going to make any difference, as they
aren't intended to be eaten. And a single dog would have no way of chewing
his own ear splints, so it's not something that would normally be a
consideration. Your dogs had to take the splints off of each other, so
they're going to point at you and ask why you didn't keep them separate or
monitored or whatever.

They may also question why you didn't see another vet when you were sure
this one was wrong for so long. It's a no-win situation with that. If you
say that you were sure the vet was wrong, but you kept going back, they're
going to point at you and ask why you didn't get another opinion.And you're
still going back to this same vet now. If you say that you trusted the vet
and you thought he was right all along, until the very end, they're going to
agree that the vet seemed to be doing the right thing and it was a terrible
accident.

You might be best off saving your energy and your emotions for taking care
of the dogs, and give up the idea of revenge against the vet.

It's unfortunate this happened, and I wish the best for your dogs. Spend
your time with them and deal with the vet after you've had time to cool
down. Maybe you can negotiate something with him later.

wrote:
ADVISE..................................PLEASE... ..................

Oh, poor baby. I'm so sorry she's going through this, and hope she recovers
well.

If I were you, I'd (1) change vets, and (2) contact a lawyer about the
possibility of a lawsuit. It sounds like if the vet had listened to you and
discovered the blockage earlier, you wouldn't have had to go through this pain
and expense. At the very least, you should get reimbursed for it.

--
Family Dog Trainer
"It's A Dog's Life"
http://hometown.aol.com/dfrntdrums/m...age/index.html
Get Healthy, Build Your Immune System, Lose Weight
http://www.re-vita.net/dfrntdrums

Handsome Jack Morrison lid wrote:
Leah, just in case you didn't know, you're now replying to posts that
were made 3 weeks ago, in what are now Dead Threads.

No, I didn't know. It just showed up on my newsreader. Ack!

Maybe it's time for you to reconsider using AOL, too?

No choice - AOL is discontinuing the ng service. I'm going to try Agent, too.


--
Family Dog Trainer
"It's A Dog's Life"
http://hometown.aol.com/dfrntdrums/m...age/index.html
Get Healthy, Build Your Immune System, Lose Weight
http://www.re-vita.net/dfrntdrums

Handsome Jack Morrison lid wrote:
The longer you wait, the more frustrating it will become for you to
use Usenet.

I know. I have to get my butt in gear within the next couple of days, before
it goes away entirely.

--
Family Dog Trainer
"It's A Dog's Life"
http://hometown.aol.com/dfrntdrums/m...age/index.html
Get Healthy, Build Your Immune System, Lose Weight
http://www.re-vita.net/dfrntdrums