My cat died last night and I think it may have been the pet hospitals fault.... (1 Viewer)

[Tom_Mack]

My cat, Shadow, died last night after a visit to the cat hospital. We brought him in because of a lump on his chin that was getting large and it was sore to the touch. Our other cat, Sebastian, has been acting aggressive lately and we wondered if Sebastian had bit Shadow. The nurse at the hospital shaved the lump and took Shadow in the back room to have him looked at. Our other cat, Sebastian, has been acting aggressive lately and we wondered if Sebastian had bit Shadow. When he came back Shadow had a exposed area that the vet told us "the skin just peeled off as I touched it and now the muscle in exposed." This was only in a tiny area. They also removed fluid from the lump and gave him a antibiotic injection.
We were told that the lump was filled with a puss like fluid and that it was harmless and localized. We were told to isolate Shadow for the night and make sure he is eating and drinking (we have another cat). Shadow began to eat and drink and acted normal towards us. We wanted to keep him in our larger bathroom last night and see if his exposed sore was better this morning. When I woke up this morning, Shadow had passed away.

I am heading to the our vet (not the hospital!) right now. I don't know what to think. The hostpital told us he was fine and that the bump was nothing. Something just doesn't seem right and I really have to wonder if the hostpital screwed up. I wonder now if our 2nd cat knew something was wrong and that is why he has been acting odd. I just hope our vet can tell us he died of natural causes and it wasn't malpractice. I don't know what to think right now.

 

[Philip_G]

Sorry to hear about your loss :frowning:
We had a dog that died while in a kennel when I was a kid, came back from vacation and she was gone :frowning:
My dad had her sent off to a university for an autopsy, At the time I think it was something like 50 bucks (this was about 1988..) If there's any doubt, maybe this is an option. Maybe it's best not to dwell on it, I don't know.

 

[Craig]

The lump sounds like an abcess from a bite or scratch. The infection may have spread through the bloodstream, maybe to the heart or other organs. The infection could have been there for a while before the lump got big enough to really notice, it's hard to tell with the fur.

 

[Steve_Tk]

The thing about pets is they can be sick for a long time before you know it. Until they learn to talk you can't do much.

 

[Tom_Mack]

Well, we are back from the vet. She wasn't able to do any tests yet, but we will find out her results today and any lab results (if needed) in a couple weeks.

We were told that the lump could have been an abcess (unfortunately I really don't know much about what abcesses are), but until they cut the lump open to remove some of the fluid, the hospital told us there was no sign of a scratch or bite. This morning the bump was as big as before they removed the fluid last night and there was blood in his mouth.

I hope they find out that the cause was an unknown natural cause, but it doesn't look like it right now.

 

[JamesHl]

Sorry to hear mate, I just lost my fairly young guinea pig to what I believe was a compounded case of vet incompetence, so I guess it's a bad week for a pet to be sick.

It's just so hard for me to second guess, you know, I feel like I'm not a doctor, so I don't want to question.

I wonder how much blood was in your cat's mouth, and if it's possible that perhaps he choked/drowned on it?

 

[Henry Carmona]

I hate hearing things like this :frowning:

Not long ago, i was looking for a kennel to care for my English Bully. I absolutely love my "Bud" and didnt want him in a tiny kennel not large enough to play in so i sought out the best place i could find.

Rob Carey is a well know place here in SA and i even enrolled Bud there for puppy classes a while back. They have great facilities and kennels as large as your pocket book.

Well, i got a great kennel with room inside and out for Bud.
I gave, and wrote, specific instructions for Buds medication (pheno for seizures).

Two tablets morning and evening for two days = 8 tablets

When i arrived to pick up Bud there were 4 tablets still in the bag which they handed back to me.

To make a long story long, i was very upset!

I kept my cool and spoke with the Mgr who was very sorry, i said i understood mistakes happen but i even wrote down directions!

Of course, all they said was sorry. I wrote them a letter and expected a response, but nothing :frowning:

I guess you know ill never be going back there for anything and warning anyone i know about what happened.

 

[Tom_Mack]

I wonder how much blood was in your cat's mouth, and if it's possible that perhaps he choked/drowned on it?

There wasn't too much because there was no blood on the floor just on his tongue and mouth. The vet we saw today said he could have bit his tongue as he died.

 

[Tom_Mack]

From some preliminary tests, it looks like the cause of death may actually have been heart disease. Some tests are being done to be sure, but I hope that this is truely the death cause. I want to have faith in the doctors I bring my pets to and right now my trust is gone..... but slowly returning.

 

[Scott Leopold]

Hopefully in your case it turns out to be natural causes and not incompetence. We struggled for a long time before finding a vet we could trust. The worst one we had actually tried to get us to poison our dog out of spite. We had a Jack Russell at the time who did not like this vet. He was excitable, but he wasn't a biter, except around her. He was fine around every other vet, but when she came into the room, he got extremely nervous. We had to muzzle him to keep him from snapping at her.

On one visit, she told us the muzzle wasn't necessary. She came near him and he snapped. He never made contact with her, but she got very upset over this, and started telling us we needed to put him down since he was a vicious animal. We explained that he had never tried to bite anyone else, and she called us liars. The JRT was only in for shots that day, but we also had our Lab with us, who was in because of allergies. He was having a bad reaction to his food, and his skin was breaking out. She recommended we switch our brand of food, then prescribed Benadryl for his allergies in the meantime. She told us that the standard dose was two pills for every ten pounds of weight, once every 6 hours. For our Lab, that would have been 14 pills every 6 hours (the recommended dose for an adult human was two pills, followed by one every 12 hours, IIRC). We immediately went to our current vet (he was my brother's vet at the time, and he recommended him to us) for a second opinion. He said that we definitely shouldn't give the dog Benadryl. When I showed him the dosage she had recommended, he threw a fit. He said that was beyond a dangerous amount for a human, and that any vet would know that that amount would kill a dog. We switched vets immediately, and reported her to the BBB.