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Very Angry
I just have to do a little venting. Well we just adopted a 2 1/2 yr old chesapeake bay retriever mix from the pound a little over 3 weeks now. Well it is there policy that we must neuter him within 30 days or they would take him back. We really didnt want him to have the surgery (we know its better for them) its just he is a lot older and we have known people with older dogs that have had complications. Well we ended up being one of these people. The vet decided not to take his whole scrotum but instead leave it and take the testies out. Well instead of her surgery going as she planned his whole entire area was HUGE!! I mean double the size of a softball it was soo bad. She said I know its bad but the swelling will go down and from now on we will do a cooling laser treatment to help with the swelling along with the crap ton of pills. So here we are almost 2 weeks now with a still very swollen dog. So last night he was walking around the house and we noticed that it was starting to get bigger again. We were very concerned and kept a close watch on it tried icing it as well. We were hoping he would be okay until Monday for his next apointment. instead we woke up this morning to blood every where!! He some how got out of his cone and tore his stitches out. The swelling was so irritating to him he escaped the cone. So we took him to the ER and 500 dollars later we still have a very swollen and sick dog. I am just furious about this whole situation. The vet had told me she tried a few new things on my dog during surgery to see if it would help with the complications of an older dog. Well it hasnt and I do not feel I should be responsible for all these medical bills piling up because of her random act of trying something new. I know this is long thanks for letting me vent. But what do you all think? Should the vet be responsible or should i just suck it up and be struggling for the next month or two because of her random act.
(and no we do not have insurance, we have this thing called shelter care which covers a very small amount of things for the 30 days after we adopt him we were looking into insurance when we first got him but guess its a little late now)
Re: Very Angry
We've had that happen with lots of dogs that get neutered and come into rescue. If they're allowed to lick the site, it becomes irritated, swollen, and filled with pus/blood. One we received had been neutered by the shelter and then transported a week later. He was really swollen, so we got him started on an antibiotic from the vet and put a cone on him. We had to keep in the kitchen for a week while it drained. It did get better though. It just takes time.
It happens a lot, and I don't think the vet is 'responsible'. You have to keep the dog quiet post surgery, and you have to keep them from irritating it or it will become infected. Vets typically leave the sack now, to help the dog heal faster and be less invasive of a surgery, but I prefer the obletion (the old surgery where they remove the sack). Our vets all still do this, but it just costs $15 extra. Of course as a pet owner, you may not have known to ask for that.
That vet owes you a refund or she should make good and give you a sizable percentage deducted from the total bill.
Hope your boy feels better soon.
I don't have much advice on your actual situation, but I would suggest finding a new vet. Even if what she did technically wasn't bad, if you aren't happy with how you feel that he/she is caring for your dog, it's not going to be a good situation.
We went to the same vet since we adopted Oz as a pup and were usually always happy with her. I felt like she took good care of him, etc. However, we had some issues last year that started making me feel that perhaps she wasn't the best fit for us anymore. So we switched and I was a lot happier then.
We found both vets from our old city by word of mouth. We ended up choosing the second vet because my friend said her parents have been taking their dog there for years. Now that we've moved back to our hometown, I'll be taking Oz to my family's vet. So I would ask around and see if you can get some recommendations from people and go with those who have long relationships with their vet.