Loss of dog rant

[JBM]

Yesterday a relatives dog passed away. Everyone is upset but I’m also angry
The dog got a block in his intestines from eating a rope toy. He was rushed to the vet and surgery was preformed. He was eating and we were told he could come home but the day he was supposed to come home he stopped eating. Nothing had been passed.

They kept him 3 more days. On Tuesday we went down and asked to see him and we were refused as he whined too much last time apparently.

The next day (yesterday) they opened him back up and discovered they hadn’t removed everything they needed to and he was horribly infected and put down.
We were refused to see him and he died after 3 days alone with no one he knew around him. We were at work when they did the operation and couldn’t make it in time as they called as he was still open on the operating table.
The choices were put him down or they can keep removing intestines but for how infected it was he would probably die on the table anyway.
So the owner opted for a hopefully painless passing with the injection

He was only a year old

I know I’m emotional and it’s all a mess but I’m so mad and upset that he could’ve made it but they just didn’t remove all they needed to the first time. I know that’s probably unfair but I don’t know
I just needed to rant as it’s not fair to do it with my family

 

[cauda equina]

What a dreadfully sad and unnecessary loss, I am so sorry

 

[pinkfluffy]

What an awful thing to happen. So very sorry x

 

[Sprout]

I am so sorry you have been through this, and the poor dog too. xx

 

[meleeka]

What a horrible thing to happen. I’d be very cross too.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I am so sorry. I would be particularly unhappy about being refused access to him because he whined too much. I certainly wouldn't expect to pay for the 2nd operation. Whether it would be worth a complaint to the regulatory body, I can't say, mistakes can happen. I would make your experience known locally and advise everyone I know to use a different vet practice. What a horrible experience for your family and perhaps a salutary reminder to us all about the potential dangers of dog toys.

 

[Moobli]

No wonder you’re emotional, upset and angry. I would be too. Such an unnecessary loss of a young dog . We all know mistakes can and do happen unfortunately but I think it’s very natural to be feeling the way you are. Do you think the vets refused access due to your presence stressing him rather than the actual whining being a problem as such? I can see how that might be considered in the dog’s best interests but obviously it just adds to the feelings of devastation because of the eventual outcome. I’d certainly find it difficult to trust the particular vet who operated and made the mistake of not removing the whole blockage again
I’m so sorry you’re going through this.

 

[JBM]

I can imagine we’re refused because it might stress him being left behind again and that’s why we didn’t fight them on it..but if I had known it would be our last chance to see him..it’s just heart wrenching

He was a guarding breed which I would say only added to the stress surrounded by people he didn’t know away from home.

They did only charge us €200 which I can imagine with X-rays, scans and 2 surgeries was probably only about 10% of the bill. Very kind of them but I really don’t think I could ever go back to them.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

I see two sides to the story - the not allowing you to see him is awful and there is no excuse for that. But making a small mistake in surgery, as long as it's not a pattern of outcomes within the practise, is human error. These things happen every now and again, it's incredibly unfortunate it's happened to your family animal and for that I am very sorry, but we are all human at the end of the day. With suicide rates being what they are within vet medicine they clearly aren't frivolous about bad outcomes and mistakes.

 

[irishdraft]

I would very upset & angry as well, in the circumstances you describe. Obviously everyone makes mistakes but you are putting your trust in professionals so you would hope that wouldn't happen . Not being allowed to see your dog whilst he was there definitely makes it all the more upsetting.

 

[Cortez]

That is so sad, but as I’m sure you know mistakes do happen and vets are only human. If the dog was extremely distressed by you visiting then I can see why they advised you not to see him, especially as he was so ill. The charge would only have been to cover drugs and staff. Poor puppy.

 

[meleeka]

I can accept the element of human error, but I think leaving the dog in pain for 3 days would be very difficult to forgive. They must know what a dog should be like after successful surgery?

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

I can accept the element of human error, but I think leaving the dog in pain for 3 days would be very difficult to forgive. They must know what a dog should be like after successful surgery?

Recovery is not linear or consistent, so yes they would have known 'x' signs of this and that, but nothing can be said for certain. We also don't know the dog was in pain, I would assume the dog was adequately medicated. Lets be careful not to put horrible images in OPs head

 

[Goldenstar]

Its an awful story and yes mistakes do happen but it’s shoddy work and they should have let you see him .
Dont pay for anything for the second surgery .
Poor little doggo and poor family be kind to each other .

 

[meleeka]

Recovery is not linear or consistent, so yes they would have known 'x' signs of this and that, but nothing can be said for certain. We also don't know the dog was in pain, I would assume the dog was adequately medicated. Lets be careful not to put horrible images in OPs head

Of course. Apologies for that. I’m sure the dog was adequately medicated for pain, but surely it’s normal for a dog to return to eating etc quite quickly or they wouldn’t have been talking about letting him home. It does sound as if they were negligent to leave it so long before reinvestigating.

 

[JBM]

I do believe they were supposed to do the surgery on Tuesday. When we were there they told us they were waiting for the vet to come back from testing (I assume cattle) and they would call us later after the surgery. This was 11am.
Called again at 1pm no progress said they would call at 7pm
They didn’t and were then closed I’m not sure what happened that they didn’t get it done til Wednesday but next time we got a call it was when he was on the table.

They believed it was another blockage as he was eating and stopped again.

I’m sure he was on heavy medication as I can only imagine how painful that level of infection would be.

I don’t know if they had got there a day earlier could he have been saved.

At least he was asleep when he passed.

His owner struggles a lot with mental health so we are all a bit on edge at the moment.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Stress can literally cause a twisted gut so maybe they didn't want that on top of everything else.

He'll probably have been doped up to the eyeballs in his last few hours and wouldn't have known what was happening. He'll not have had much of a life and would have had all sorts of issues with a huge chunk of intestine gone.

We've lost two following emergency surgery, it's horrible but one of those things that can come from owning dogs unfortunately.

The best thing to have happened was for the foreign body not to have been ingested at all, and I say this as the owner of dogs who are prone to eat, and have eaten, stupid stuff. It's a huge risk with certain breeds/types and I know some brilliant, caring owners who have lost dogs in these sort of freak accidents.

Human medics can make this sort of error too, my uncle had an operation where something was left inside him from an emergency procedure and they had to go in again after he took a turn for the worst. Not ideal but it does happen in the haste to save a life.

 

[ArklePig]

I'm so sorry for your loss, poor poor dog.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Really sorry x

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

I share your concern that access was refused and yes I'd be mega-angry and upset about that particular issue.

So sorry this has happened. Such a young dog too.

 

[Nasicus]

The best thing to have happened was for the foreign body not to have been ingested at all, and I say this as the owner of dogs who are prone to eat, and have eaten, stupid stuff. It's a huge risk with certain breeds/types and I know some brilliant, caring owners who have lost dogs in these sort of freak accidents.

An acquaintance of mine lost his young working Labrador after a noodle drying mitt was accidentally left in the kennel and the dog ate it. It unravelled and strangulated a lot of it's intestines. Had surgery to move the noodle and sections of intestine, seemed to be recovering well but then took a nosedive. Turned out whilst recovering, the intestines had developed adhesions all over the place, and long and short of it is the dog ended up being PTS.
Just one of those freak accidents/mistakes by otherwise fantastic owners, the guilt the poor man was riddled by was immense.

 

[CorvusCorax]

An acquaintance of mine lost his young working Labrador after a noodle drying mitt was accidentally left in the kennel and the dog ate it. It unravelled and strangulated a lot of it's intestines. Had surgery to move the noodle and sections of intestine, seemed to be recovering well but then took a nosedive. Turned out whilst recovering, the intestines had developed adhesions all over the place, and long and short of it is the dog ended up being PTS.
Just one of those freak accidents/mistakes by otherwise fantastic owners, the guilt the poor man was riddled by was immense.

Yep, I have a friend who lost a dog in 2018 when she swallowed a ball when her back was turned/she was cleaning kennels and she has never and probably will never get over it.

 

[Redders]

Stress and excitement when recovering can cause issues with internal stitches. Had I done the surgery this would be a concern of mine with owners visiting if pet was stressed on a previous visit. Recovery isnt linear, the first 72hrs post this type of surgery is the most critical. There are several things, some manageable and ok and others not, that can cause not eating post surgery. We don’t know which cause is which without initial treat and watch and wait - that is how we have to do it for things like pain. They removed the FB, the guts reaction to that is unknown. Can be fab, can go the other way. Other bits causing a blockage along the way - can’t really be predicted unless large bits seem on imaging prior - if they had seen that they would have discussed it.
It is a massive surgery to perform and recover from, and it won’t always have a positive outcome, even if everything was done perfectly.
Compromised gut - is removed at time of surgery to leave apparently healthy gut - that isn’t a guarantee that the guy is healthy completely, it just doesn’t look dodgy yet - this cant be planned for. That will cause horrible infection and is a known post op complication that can’t be predicted or prevented, no matter what is done, it just happens sometimes. It’s shit, but it’s one of those things.
I am on the edge of my seat for 4 days post doing these surgeries. Not because I do that badly, but BecUse they are very high risk from start to end of initial recovery period


What I am trying to say, is that it was always high risk, and it’s sad, and you should feel sad to lose your dog. Please don’t waste your grief on anger about things that probably on balance wouldn’t have changed the outcome x

 

[CorvusCorax]

As a person beset by Stupid Incidents, I'll just burble out a few thoughts.

I never leave a dog unsupervised with an item I think (the individual dog) is capable of swallowing. This may involve doing sweeps of garden and kennels. If I know them to have swallowed something that could cause a blockage or strangulation, and this has happened a couple of times, I take them to the vet for the vomiting jab.

I knew that one of my dogs had eaten most of a drinks can a few years back so rushed him to the vets for x-rays, they said they found nothing. He shat out shards of metal days later with apparently no ill effects. This dog also chewed up and swallowed a tennis ball and it took weeks and months to come out and caused huge, seemingly un-resolvable problems for him. He was back and forth to the vets for months, I do not ever let my dogs have tennis balls and I had no idea he had even picked it up, I still don't know where he got it from, only that there were bits of rubber which tally with a tennis ball, coming from both ends.

The worst thing one of my dogs has eaten were two pairs of balled up tights, which untangled and twisted around her guts. That involved a big surgery and she lived for another three years (she was 11 at the time).

My older dog, who is a Grade A, five star, top drawer, first class knobhead ate the entire handle of a flexi leash at around the same time (I was distracted and didn't realised it had dropped from under my arm into his bedding, so made no noise), with no ill effects at all. He was pooping bits of rubber and screws for weeks. It was way too late for the jab, I kept an eye on him, he was eating, drinking and passing stools as normal.

My friend's young pup ate the electronics box under the seat of his van over ten days ago. She was off her food and then had the runs and after that, he thought she was fine. After shouting at him for leaving her alone in the front of the vehicle when he has a set of very expensive boxes in the back, the first thing I said was that he should have gone straight to the vets for the vomiting jag. Last night, she had bad V&D and was refusing food. I hope it is unconnected, but I don't think a load of wiring in her stomach is going to be very pleasant for her.

 

[SantaVera]

Poor dog, I'd see a solicitor about sueing the vets

 

[AmyMay]

Poor dog, I'd see a solicitor about sueing the vets

Suing for what??

 

[Cortez]

Poor dog, I'd see a solicitor about sueing the vets

Nope. You won't win.

 

[twiggy2]

Vets are damned of they do and damned if the don't, vets don't do wrong by animals on purpose, when a vet is involved in emergency care the animal is already compromised, they operated and dealt with after care in the way they felt was best for the dog and unfortunately the dog had complications and hasn't made it through.
I am so sorry for your families loss OP and understand your anger I am not sure that the vets did anything wrong though. They will have acted in the best interest of the dog at the time.
I have had dogs at the vets for surgery and been working on reception and during my shift I wouldn't go to say hello as it would disturb them so I went in did my job and went home as the dog was more rested and settled without the disturbance of my presence.

 

[JBM]

I just wish to state that no one has said a bad word to the vets we thanked them I’m just working through my own feelings as you never expect to loose someone before they’re even fully grown.
It was tragic and I don’t blame anyone
There’s things a wonder about and certain ways they did things I don’t 100% agree with but they did their best
It was an accident and it sucks and it hurts but sueing or giving out to a poor vet won’t bring him back.

 

[CorvusCorax]

OP, you sound quite young. As you go through life you will gain more experience and learn more things and you may probably take a slightly different view of the world, there will be dogs in your life for a short time and dogs in your life for a long time. We have be as vigilant as we can and we also have to entrust the health of our animals to the best vets that we can afford and accept that not everything will always go the way that we expect it to, or else we all need to become vets and carry out all the procedures ourselves, just to be sure.