(CW: pet death, pet illness, euthanasia, etc.) i just had one of THE most stressful and insane days uhhhh EVER possibly...will be getting to RP stuff tonight hopefully!! but pwease be patient with me
hoooookay so maybe no tags tonight after all...but i will perhaps do an abridged version of the rant just to send the feelings into the void. adding a big CW for pet death, pet illness, euthanasia, etc. to this post....DISCLAIMER: NO PETS ARE ACTUALLY DEAD. but i will be talking about it
for the past few months he's been in and out of the vet with a really bad cough + fatigue that just kept getting worse...after a few TOTALLY WRONG diagnoses it turned out that he has an enlarged heart
he got put on a bunch of medications + a cardio diet but he still declined super fast over the past couple of weeks and got to the point where he was struggling to walk, struggling to breathe...it was really rough most days so after a lot of putting it off we (me and my mom) eventually decided that it was probably time for him to be euthanized
so we went to the vet and went through the whole process, said our goodbyes...we decided it would be best for all of us if we weren't in the room when it happened so we left when we were told it was done and cried for many days
so he was stuck at a shelter for 4 days when our goal was for him NOT to suffer........and the people on the phone were so cruel and accusatory toward my mom about us "abandoning" him that she sobbed pretty much all day. i've never seen her cry so much
he's still sick and still has his cough and was off his meds for all those days but the upside is that he's very friendly and doesn't seem at all fazed by the shelter experience...he just acted a little confused at the worst
fortunately the person who picked him up was very very nice about all of this and showed us pictures she took of him sitting in the front seat of her car to us when we came to pick him back up (mom and i both burst into tears at this point...we were so scared that HE was scared but he looked totally calm. god)
unfortunately she was a cop and literally came to talk to us in her cop outfit when we came to pick him up (in front of everyone else in the shelter. looked insane)
sooo now Toby is back home and acting like nothing even happened. but me and mom are just like......in shock. kind of traumatized. how did this even happen. we grieved him and now he's just back here again. IT'S AMAZING HAVING HIM BACK but also like........what on earth. i don't know. wild
the cop was there because there was some sort of investigation into how this happened i guess??? and the vet's excuse currently is "well they didn't pay for him to be euthanized" BUT WE DID. WE HAVE A RECEIPT. WE HAVE RECORDS OF BEING AT THE VET OFFICE WITH AN APPOINTMENT. bonkers
SOOOO THAT'S MY STORY.....it's kind of insane and A Lot so sorry everypony but i just wanted to type it all out to process it.....i had to take over as The Calm Person after my mom became inconsolable so i've been holding in my stress most of the day
I ALSO HAD TO WORK TODAY. AND I HAVE TO WORK TOMORROW. AFTER ALL THIS DRAMA. (shoutout to my supervisor for being super understanding when i suddenly left midday with the excuse of "a family emergency" though.....very based moment for him......thank GOD i work remotely)
and i keep thinking about the clay pawprint thing they do. were they just going to send me the imprint of some random dog's paw??????? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING
Kibi, I'm so sorry. I'm also struggling to wrap my head around this. First of all, dealing with this sort of pet health situation is so stressful and painful. Coming to the decision that it's best for your pet to go to spare them further pain/suffering is i think one of the hardest ones you have to make when you share your life with a pet
only to be like. maybe it's dramatic to put it this way, but your vet totally betrayed the trust you and your mom had with them to properly take care of toby!
not only that but to turn around and lie about what happened + and that you had paid for the euthanasia is completely insane to me. what the fuck is wrong with those people?!!?!?!?
i feel so awful for you and your mom and toby. this is already such a fraught, painful, and traumatic time in your life. and for your vet to do this sort of thing is just-- ugh, it's just ghastly!
it's also STILL GOING TODAY because despite this whole thing starting due to the vet claiming that we "didn't pay" THEY ARE STILL CHARGING US. FOR FUCKING WHAT????? and it was like $400!!!!
we're disputing it and got someone on the phone to explain and they said that we were charged not for euthanasia and instead for 1.) a hospitalization and 2.) cremation
we asked for him NOT to be cremated because we were given the option of donating his body to the vet school. secondable.......WHY WOULD WE HOSPITALIZE A DOG THAT'S ABOUT TO BE CREMATED!?!?!
my turn to be dramatic: i don't feel like i can trust ANY vet after the experiences i've had with trying to get care for Toby!!! so many misdiagnoses and then paying so much money for treatments that don't fucking help and now WHATEVER THIS IS
i generally don't like to talk about Pet Health Drama because it's my own business but in this case it's just so bewildering i have to write it down SOMEWHERE.....
i had a similar thing happen with Orisa's old vet where they fucked up her spay and then instead of admitting they fucked up and helping her, they spent 4 days gaslighting me about how the infection was a normal part of the healing process until i had to bring her to the ER with severe sepsis
some vet clinics just suck ass and the best thing you can do is put them publically on blast (Orisa's old vet was Banfield, and i honestly should know better than taking a pet to the vet clinic inside of a petsmart.....)
i dont have words. that is unbelievably awful and im angry on your behalf that a vet would do that to someone. its horrible on so many levels and is completely unacceptable. i cant even conjure a single way it makes any sense either
^ how???? like I expect some amount of misdiagnosis stories from vets because medical shit is hard (which does not preclude someone being negligent, but) but this?????
I know for various reasons I couldn’t be there for my pets being euthanized (which mainly wasn’t the vet’s fault and I honestly don’t want to get into here) but... we got them back. But... that doesn’t. Explain the paperwork and everything. My guess is, unfortunately, this isn’t the first time this vet did this
thank you, this entire thing has been so nuts and exhausting, i've basically given up on trying to wrap my head around it...😭😭 we signed so much paperwork!! it was a very reputable vet!!
it just feels so evil that Toby's right back to having more bad days (short of breath, refusing to walk, acting confused) so now we're going through that "is it time?" grief all over again.....but i'm trying to put some distance between The Everything and go back to some normalcy so i can function
straight up: talk to the veterinary medication association, talk to the police, and talk to the media. vet malpractice lawsuits often don't get you anything worth the hassle but tanking their business is a public good.
(I looked this up while dealing with Orisa's spay, dogs are legally considered property so lawsuits will only pay out the price it cost to get your dog originally.)
I'm just
I didn't have words earlier, I thought I'd find them but
Gonna. Assume y'all are finding a different Vet to use after this holy shit
I'm sorry Kibi, that's absolutely nuts :[
like I expect some amount of misdiagnosis stories from vets because medical shit is hard (which does not preclude someone being negligent, but)
but this?????