Initially I liked the practice.However, their lack of knowledge caused the suffering and death of my young dog, and I cannot recommend these Dr's. This has been extraordinarily painful and I should not know more about canine lymphoma than this vet practice, but I do. At great emotional expense. I consider it worse than medical negligence, I'd say it's medical incompetence.
The front desk staff and vet techs are all very friendly, and accommodating. I brought my dog in with swollen nodes, a couple weeks after finding a tick on him. The first vet I saw wanted to do a lot of tests, explaining that if it was lymphoma, he needed fast treatment for the best outcome. I asked if we could try a couple days of antibiotic, and if he didn't respond in 2 days, we'd be back to do those tests. I was assured that lymphoma does not respond to antibiotics and the nodes would remain swollen if it was cancer. After 2 days, my dog's nodes had reduced by 80 % and while still slightly enlarged, he was showing improvement. Lymphoma was rule out at this time.
He continued to decline and we switched antibiotic 9 days later, thinking he could not tolerate this antibiotic.That proved to not help. He was eating less at this point. He'd plateau for a day or two , might start to improve a little, but never started to regain full health.
Dr Vooys saw him as he was beginning to have trouble breathing and we took him off all antibiotics to see how he recovered. The day she saw him she did not recommend additional tests and reiterated that she had ruled out lymphoma. No x-ray was performed , no additional blood test, either. She just sent him home. No warning that these symptoms are the same as most cancers in dogs. No curiosity, no concern about his elevated respiratory rate.
4 days later and he was now coughing and Dr Mulrain (sp?) did an x-ray. She told me she couldn't rule out cancer but it looked like pneumonia. She did not suggest testing for cancer at this time , either. How I wish she had. He still may have had a chance at at least palliative care.
I was told it would take a few days to respond, and 5 days later he had stopped taking food altogether. I saw Dr Vooys again who told me he needed supportive care and I took him to Tufts Animal Hospital immediately. He was placed in the ICU and after additional blood tests it was confirmed he was now stage 5 lymphoma. He was terrified, couldn't breathe and was in a very scary , noisy, traumatic ICU with many sick animals. Dogs with lymphoma , on average, live 6-8 weeks ( with no treatment- with treatment many can live years) from diagnosis as this disease invades the body so rapidly.
I was at this time informed that my vets were completely wrong. Anitbiotics are immuno-suppressive and they can shrink lymph nodes. 1 full month after onset, we tried chemo therapy. My dog suffered internal hemorraghing and suffocated, no longer healthy enough to withstand the drugs.We lost a whole month where his prognosis would have been entirely different- 80-90% of dogs treated for lymphoma go into remission for a period.
Adding insult to injury, neither vet has followed up with me in any manner, something I always experienced with my other vets. They sent my dog,who they'd been treating for a month unsuccessfully, to the emergency vet and never thought about him again. read more
