Incompetent Vets: Animal Killers

Monday September 27, 2010

Close brush with death

Some beloved pets have narrowly escaped death, no thanks to incompetent vets.
 
BOGUS vets are not the only nightmare that pet owners face. There are also issues with callous treatment, indifference and malpractice.

Late last year, Anna* had a bad experience with a vet centre in Kuala Lumpur. When her cat was hit by a car, she sent the kitty to another clinic as her regular vet did not have an X-ray machine. The cat was attended to by a junior vet who could not provide her with more information other than the fact that “nothing was broken”.

Handle with care: Animals suffer stress when they are in an unfamiliar environment or callously treated.

“Despite being put in an ‘ICU’, she came back with terrible urine burns. She was kept in a cage with no paper or cat litter, and wouldn’t go to the toilet in the cage. She was constantly leaking urine and it burnt all the hair off her stomach and hind quarters,” says Anna.

Anna called every day for updates on the cat’s situation but replies were not always forthcoming. Anna said that at the clinic, her cat’s recovery was slow, if at all, and the vet said they could not do anything more for her pet. So Anna brought her home as the cat had stopped eating or drinking.

“Once home she started eating little by little and she got better each day. The five-day stay cost nearly RM1,000. My cat was so distressed and close to dying by that time. They were charging me extra money for ICU but my cat had no intensive care at all! They should at least have washed off the urine so that her fur would not be hard and sticky, and applied cream on her,” says an exasperated Anna.

For Sue*, Christmas four years ago was the day she almost lost her kitten. The feline was having high fever and was not eating or drinking. Her family vet was away for the Christmas holidays and Sue found that only two were available – one in KL and another in Subang, Selangor.

The one in KL was closing in half an hour’s time and as Sue was coming from Petaling Jaya, she begged the vet to wait as she was worried about traffic congestion.

“We are closing no matter what or how. If you love him (the kitten) a lot, no matter how you’ll reach here in 30 minutes,” was the vet’s reply, she says.

So Sue gave up and went to the vet in Subang. Instead of attending to the cat immediately, the young vet came up with many theories on why the cat was ailing. He took a blood sample and told her the results showed that the kitten had Parvo virus and prescribed some medication.

“The kitten didn’t get well the second day. I called my family vet and explained the situation to him. He was wondering if I was talking about a kitten or a puppy, as Parvo virus normally infects dogs. He gave a prescription over the phone, and my kitten survived. Now he’s four years old,” says Sue.

Animal rescuer Alicia Horsley had two sick animals to deal with late last year – her FIV+ (the feline version of HIV) cat Akiko, and Noel, a female glider (a small marsupial possum). She sent Akiko to her regular vet and Noel to the vet in Damansara, Selangor, because not many vets know how to handle gliders.

Horsley called to ask for the address and directions but was rebuffed − they only told her it was near a certain location. She packed her two sons and the animals in her car. It was raining heavily when she dropped Akiko off. When she called the clinic in Damansara again, she was told the vet had left.

“When I found the clinic at 4pm, the first vet I had spoken to had left. A young vet spoke to me and said no one could treat Noel. I was asked to come back at 6pm. I came all the way from Ampang (KL) in the storm and he did not even ask what was wrong with Noel. They have no compassion,” Horsley recalls. Noel is doing well now because Horsley managed to get help from an expert on gliders.

Another dog was almost given the “death” sentence by a vet in Cheras, KL. May’s* Doberman was diagnosed with demodex (a skin problem caused by mites which commonly affects the feet, making it painful to walk). It was given jabs and oral medication to consume over three weeks in September last year.

When the dog didn’t show any signs of improvement, May was concerned. The vet told her to continue treatment or have the dog put down. May took her dog to another vet, and under his treatment, her dog recovered. – By S.S. Yoga

* Names have been changed upon request.

COMING ON SATURDAY: INJUSTICE TO VETS?

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