Today my baby boy Tucker should have been 8 years old.
Tucker came down with what was believed to be acute pancreatitis. This means his pancreas was inflamed. There are many tests and medications that can be given for this condition, but despite my shameless plea that they do ANYTHING they can to ensure his health, next to nothing was done. That being said, If actually nothing HAD been done, he would be alive today. What this vet decided to do was starve Tucker for 7 days to give his pancreas a break. They withheld water and food and put him on an IV drip for about 5 days. We had no idea what they were doing during the days he spent in their care. We were told when we brought him home at night to withhold food and water from him. We thought he was being monitored, we thought he was in capable hands, we thought he was getting better...
His last day at the vet they tested his levels again and lo-and behold his pancreas had repaired itself. Halfway through the day tucker began begging to be let out, begging for his mommy. He walked outside, collapsed on the grass, and finally drew his last breath. Alone, in a strange place, with no goodbyes.
The blood tests revealed that he had died from Anemia. My poor chuncky sweet boy was starved till he could no longer fight. He came home every night to watch his sister eat, and was starving to death before our eyes and we didn't help him. The pain I feel over this is something I can not describe. If I had fed him....If we had gone to another vet... Maybe if we just kept him at home.... Maybe if he wasn't stuck in a kennel during the days he would have found the strength to survive for us. But we reasoned that since the vet seemed to think it was minor, nothing to worry over or to take immediate action over, I was simply paranoid. Despite many efforts to meet with the vet to discuss what happened, they dodged us and never gave us the answers we desperately needed. They only contacted us to send us a card and a bill which cleaned out all our savings. The cost to have your dog starved? Well over 1,000. These are only the main discrepancies, but there were plenty more horrible touches throughout, like sending his body home in a garbage bag for instance.
I have not spoken publicly about this. In part because it was so horrendous and tragic, but also in part because I did not want my grief to cloud my judgment or make me feel misplaced anger. It has been almost 9 months since then, and i have spoken to many professionals as well as met several people who found themselves in the same position as we did. If you read some of their reviews you will find hidden in the bottom many complaints of animals dying not from their conditions, but likely from the vets treatment. read more
