\”G\’day – you the vet who comes to the home?\” She asked me.
\”I am,\” I replied.
\”Me puppy\’s been to the vets on a drip over the long weekend, and I\’m not happy about how they treated him, he\’s got a huge bloody sore on his foot, can you come and check it out?\” she asked, all in a long spurt of words.
\”Sure I can, it sounds like you need me to see you today?\”
\”That would be great,\” she replied, thankfully.
\”OK – I\’ve got my computer out and I can get to you at around 3:00 this arvo – how does that sound?\”
\”Awesome – see you then.\”
It was a busy day making my way all around Townsville, and I was running late by the time I pulled up to their front gate – a tired looking rental house, unkempt lawn, a scatter of worn out toys, and an anxious face looking out the window, waiting for me. I was ushered into a room with a couple of little kids, wide eyed, peering at me from behind their mum, and settled on the couch. A Rottie pup lay in the corner with a bandage on his front foot, and lifted his head to look at me, but wasn\’t much interested in getting up to come over and say hello.
\”What\’s the story then?\” I asked.
\”I\’m so angry with those bloody vets – (she mentioned the name of a clinic I knew well, as many other clients had said much the same) – me pup had parvo, you see, and I took him in, they put him on a drip and treated him over the long weekend, and when I went back this morning to get him, they told me he got a staph infection in where his drip went in, but the young vet who\’d been looking after him. And then, the head nurse and the boss came in, the bastards, and when I started asking questions they were flat out rude to me, they were! They started attacking me about having to pay my bill, and wouldn\’t answer my questions. And his foot is a terrible mess.\” She was very upset, obviously worried about her pup.
\”Let me take the bandage off and have a look,\” I said.
She held him for me, and I gently peeled the bandages off. It was hot, and they were already pretty stinky. I was shocked when I finally revealed the wound, a huge necrotic ulcer over the whole front of his paw. I gently cleaned it, and found that it was so deep that it was very nearly down to the tendons – the skin was all gone, full thickness necrosis, and as I washed it, several of the tiny popliteal bones that sit over the joints actually fell out! This was no simple staph infection, rather it was clearly a bandage wound.
\”In my opinion,\” I explained, framing my words carefully, as I knew that I had to be careful, \”This is the result of a bandage that has either been put on too tightly, or which has slipped down your pup\’s leg, and then bound up on his foot and been too tight. As a result the blood flow to the skin gets cut off, and the skin dies, then you get this big open wound. I\’ve seen it happen a few times over the years.\”
\”Well then why are those bastards lying to me then?\” she asked.
\”I can\’t tell you that,\” I said. \”I\’ll give them a ring, and see what they say.\”
The phone call to the other vets was short, and they were rude to me also. I explained my findings, they basically told me I was wrong, and refused to accept any responsibility whatsoever. A long discussion with the owner unfolded – she wanted to know what action she could take against the other vets, I explained that she could make a complaint to the veterinary surgeons board, and that I would have to write an official report to support her claim. It was a difficult situation. In my opinion the wound was clearly due to negligence on the part of the hospital, and the thing is that if they\’d simply accepted responsibility, the owner would have been happy to pay the bill, and have them fix up their problem without charging her. Instead they stonewalled, and were rude and obnoxious. So it ended up going to the veterinary surgeons board, and the hospital in question got a slap on the wrist, and a fine.
The puppy recovered – I was there every 3-4 days for a couple of weeks changing bandages, and though the foot was permanently deformed somewhat when it finally healed, he was fine. I was flabbergasted at how the boss of the first hospital she went to abused his position of power, though. Not all vets are nice people!