The vet did not kill my dog, but he increased her suffering, and later attempted to repeat the same cycle with my cat.
Pudsey was brought in with an extremely high fever that made the entire vet staff go "oh." She was throwing up, had black diarrhea, and was scared and in pain. The vet recommended/told us to take her home with medication for the upset stomach and fever to "see if she got better." She did not, and went back twice. At this point in time, we'd trusted this vet because of previous positive experiences. Dr. Moody never said "Our office isn't equipped to treat her issues." It was always a prescription and being told to "wait and see." And after doing physical examinations, saying "She's not giving me anything and we can't tell what's wrong."
After almost a week of this, she was admitted to the emergency vet on a Wednesday night, and after just over 24 hours, the emergency vet staff told us she had a serious stomach infection and possibly other grave issues, but testing wouldn't really get us anywhere because she was hurting so much, and at this point was immobile except for her little tail waging because she never stopped trying her best, that we needed to let her go.
The outcome would not have changed. As the vets at the emergency room explained, dogs, especially stoic strong ones like our girl, hide their wounds and pain from us because that's what happens in a pack. However, Dr. Moody was unprofessional and unequipped to deal with her case, and instead of telling us "I don't have answers, you should go somewhere else," he told us, "I don't have answers, let's try this (medication)(waiting)(bring her back in for some other exam)." Again, he didn't kill my dog, she would have passed away regardless, but he made that experience so much worse for her.
I could have possibly forgiven this because there were so many years of positive relationships, but 5 months or so later, my 14 year old cat Godzilla because throwing up all her food she could not keep anything down. He repeated the same message of "try this steroid" or "antibiotic", then say after physically examining her with his hands and an X-ray, "she's not telling us anything." But they only took an X-Ray of her chest and neck when it was her stomach/intestines that were likely the problem area. Why? We were suggested to wait a few weeks for a traveling ultrasound tech to come and do an ultrasound on her. That infuriated me. My cat didn't have a few weeks. She'd dropped at least 3 pounds and was continuing to drop even more weight. Her spirit wasn't broken but her body was, and he wanted us to "wait and see."
I pulled the plug much sooner, in great part because he would not prescribe medication to stop her from throwing up and would only prescribed antibiotics - which she threw up. So I took her to a vet and took all her records with me, and took her to a new vet. They tried another medication, but it was a last ditch effort, and after 5 days she'd dropped even more weight and wasn't responding to the meds. The new vet did tests, X-X-rayed and ultrasound her stomach (without sedating her like they did at Gurley -- Gurley said it was necessary to get clear images. I think back and my darling must not have been treated right, because she is loud and obnoxious, but she's not vicious, something the new vet validated because she was uncomfortable due to her known and diagnosed spinal arthritis) and found it was either cancer or irritable bowel disease (the test to tell which would have been several hundreds of dollars but both were treated by the same medication).
My darling Godzilla's body was failing her, so I put her to sleep, even though she was still fighting. She could have possibly been saved sooner. Of course, the new vet didn't guarantee that would have happened because she'd been sick for a while before symptoms became obvious via her throwing up everything she ate, or her disease could have been managed and she could have been given a happier, more peaceful end. Instead she was scared and felt backed into a corner, and at this point was almost 7 pounds when her normal weight was 10-11lbs and she hadn't been able to successfully eat in almost 4 weeks.
Dr. Moody did not kill my cat, but he increased her suffering.
He may be better suited for general animal care, but in these 2 cases, where the animals had more acute needs, he couldn't provide the care they needed and he never told me. I forgive this, but I am and always will grieve for my girls and that I did not protect them like I'd promised I would and that a veterinarian professional was not honest about their needs. read more
