My Vet Horror Story from 2005

[HappyHummingbird]

I'm so glad Zaf is okay after all of it. You however, probably will never forget what happened. Have you dealt with that vet at all since?

 

[Jlong1989]

All that counts from this store is that zaf is safe and still flapping

 

[Jlong1989]

Story I mean

 

[plax]

I'm so glad Zaf is okay after all of it. You however, probably will never forget what happened. Have you dealt with that vet at all since?

Thank you. And no, unfortunately it's the kind of thing one cannot forget. I have not dealt with the vet since and I can assure you that I will NEVER deal with him again!

 

[plax]

Story I mean

Yes, that's indeed what counts!

 

[MeganMango]

Actually, if you'll browse back and re-read the first part of my account you'll see that I explained they were unable to restrain Zaf for the initial radiograph exposures prior to anesthetization. But I as well explained how I'd stepped in at that point, put on the protective garments, and successfully got Zaf to lay on his back for the imaging. And Zaf did it for me without issue - partly because he trusts me, and partly because the vet tech had no clue how to handle him. The vet seemed more concerned in letting me know that if Zaf bit through the gloves I would be charged for replacing them than in anything else.

The reason they anesthetized Zaf was twofold: 1) to perform the crop irrigation, and 2) to facilitate guidance of the crop evacuation process with subsequent radiographs. However, if not for the crop irrigation/evacuation procedure I could have easily positioned Zaf for the subsequent x-ray exposures.

I understand he was willing to cooperate with you, and thats not why they needed to sedate him. I just wanted to comment that even with proper handling it would be very hard to restrain an upset bird for an Xray while keeping hands out of the shot. Its really good they let you help, a lot of places wouldnt have allowed it. Animals are very different when their owners disappear, sometimes they become irrational. I know from personal experience that the biggest fear is harming the animal, or allowing him/her to harm themselves. I suspect that X rays are probably traumatic for any bird that needs to get it done without their owners present. As I said, I agree the vet messed up, but its important to recognize that things arent always as easy as they seem to us in the waiting room. A simple task that your pet would do for you without question can be a big ordeal once you are out of the room and the animal is left alone and terrified. I recently saw a post here from a lady whose bird ended up with rather nasty looking bruises on its face from a restraint. This is a vet/techs worst nightmare. They dont want to upset your pets, but its hard to explain to a mortified macaw that he just needs to lie on the table for a minute.

 

[MikeyTN]

OMG, I'm so sorry you had to go through that with a vet. Vets SHOULD be questioned at ALL times!!!!!!!!!!! I don't care about what anyone else that have posted stuffs against you Tony. But it is the truth as I've gone through it several times. Could I have filed a lawsuit, yes I could have, but would it be worth it, absolutely not! I just tell people not to go to that clinic, what comes around goes around as karma is.

Years ago when my puppy died while I was out of town for my sister's wedding. I had friends watching her for me. He failed to watch her carefully as she ingested a rock that got stuck in her small intestine and she died from shock. She was only 7 months old. I was completely devastated as I've raised her since he was only 8 months old and she would only sleep on my chest otherwise she would cry all night long.

I had given my friend who my vet is and to bring her there if he needed to as they will bill me. He did not do that, he took her to another clinic. They needed the owner's permission to do an autopsy and they called me for permission and I give the go ahead. I got back a few days later, the morning I woke up I went to look at her baby pictures and I started crying none stop from 11am til 6pm where my eyes are swollen red and my partner at that time have never seen me cry like that. She was my baby! The day afterwards, the clinic called me with the news and to come in to talk to them. So I did, they handed me the rock that had killed her but there was no collar, leash, tags, or her body period. They said they didn't think I want anything back so they incinerated everything. I said do what? You have to ask me if I wanted anything including her body, you guys NEVER asked me as I never give you the permission to destroy everything. I said I paid for the procedure to be done, they said no you didn't, the guy who brought her body in paid, I said I paid him the moment I got back in town, do you want to call him to verify? Plus she is registered to me, she is my dog, I am her owner, he was NOT! They started hanging up on me and won't take any of my phone calls. I was really angry at that vet clinic as I only got the stupid rock that killed her. I still kept her baby picture til this very day as this incident happened back in 2000. BUT like I've said, what comes around goes around. I ended up making friends with this lawyer who brought it to my attention that there was a lot of complaints going against that vet clinic and he was following up on it. He wanted a statement from me and anyone who I know that had the issue with him, so I give it all to him as I was told by many people the horrible thing that vet have done. That vet have been practicing for over 30 years, it's not the amount of years you've practiced, it's the moral part that matters! Anyway, he ended up getting shut down for good by the lawyer friend of mine, he got what he deserved!

 

[plax]

I understand he was willing to cooperate with you, and thats not why they needed to sedate him. I just wanted to comment that even with proper handling it would be very hard to restrain an upset bird for an Xray while keeping hands out of the shot. Its really good they let you help, a lot of places wouldnt have allowed it. Animals are very different when their owners disappear, sometimes they become irrational. I know from personal experience that the biggest fear is harming the animal, or allowing him/her to harm themselves. I suspect that X rays are probably traumatic for any bird that needs to get it done without their owners present. As I said, I agree the vet messed up, but its important to recognize that things arent always as easy as they seem to us in the waiting room. A simple task that your pet would do for you without question can be a big ordeal once you are out of the room and the animal is left alone and terrified. I recently saw a post here from a lady whose bird ended up with rather nasty looking bruises on its face from a restraint. This is a vet/techs worst nightmare. They dont want to upset your pets, but its hard to explain to a mortified macaw that he just needs to lie on the table for a minute.

Some comments:

This vet didn't simply "mess up"... He was rude and arrogant. He was entirely insensitive. And he unnecessarily risked my dear bird's life with his inappropriate actions. Quite frankly, to this very day I'm not convinced that as soon as he viewed the first x-ray image it didn't occur to him Zaf may have been microchipped. The guy simply emits signals of greed and apathy, and in a huge way.

While your point is well-taken about restraining efforts upon frightened pets that have been taken from their owners, there are effective methods a person can use to restrain a frightened large Macaw. This particular vet technician had absolutely no idea what she was doing. She had zero control of Zaf! He was thrashing so violently that there was a real danger of serious injury to him. If I hadn't stormed into the procedure room when I did Zaf may well have ended up with a broken wing. Again, there ARE effective techniques that will enable someone to restrain a frightened large Macaw. It was abundantly obvious that neither this vet nor his technician were aware of those techniques.

And they certainly did not want me in the procedure room and had initially insisted that I stay out. But that's just not gonna happen when someone is incompetently handling my bird!