Brookside Veterinary Hospital

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I certainly can understand when we lose a loved one how emotional it can be and due to these high emotions how one might misinterprete or misunderstand the turn of events. In regards to the above incident, the actual events of what took place are far different then what has been portrayed. When this little dog arrived at our hospital, the receptionist was told that the dog had an episode of turning blue earlier with the owner. A liscensed vet tech came out immediately as the doctor was still with another client. The tech assessed the current status of the patient and found her to be stable, not blue, but panting with her gum color at that time a normal pink. The owner and patient were escorted immediately to the exam room to wait for the doctor and be out of the busy waiting room. As the owner was waiting for the doctor, who was finishing the previous case, the dog had another episode of respritory distress. As soon as the client told the tech and the doctor the dog was in distress, they immediately took the little dog to the treatment area, intubated her and placed her on oxygen. It is untrue that they ran out of oxygen during this time. In fact, an IV cathetar was placed to give the dog a sedative so she would not be in distress and would tolerate the tube in her throat which was giving her the oxygen. The doctor was able to stabilize her and then discuss with the owner what was happening and get her permission for X- rays. The owner agreed and chest films were taken which revealed fluid in her chest/lungs and around her heart. The owner was told of the findings and offered transfer to a 24 hour care facility where they have ultrasound to be able to better view the cardiovascular problem and possibly help treat her. The owner was warned of the risks of transfer due to the unstability of the ongoing problems and the owner declined transfer saying since the dog was old anyway they would elect euthanasia. All during the time the discussions were occuring with the owner, the little dog was kept sedated and on oxygen. When the owner elected euthanasia, while the dog was sedated and comfortable, the euthanasia solution was put through the IV cathetar that was already in place. The owner was allowed, per her request, to hold the dog as the euthansia was performed. The dog passed away peacefully and did not suffer in the least since she was already sedated. As per the costs incurred, there was an emergency CPR/exam, oxygen therapy, IV cathetar, multiple x- rays, and the cost of the euthanasia solution. Given the hard work of the staff and the doctor to try and stabilize this little dog with a long term life threatening problem-the costs of this emergency procedure was not unreasonable. Unfortunately as in human medicine, we are not always able to save every patient altho' we always due our best. We are a loving and caring staff. We treat every patient as if they belonged to us. Sometimes medicine occurs rapidly and things seem hectic altho' they are still in control. To a grieving owner it may seem confusing but the negative language to describe what took place was far from the truth.

brookvet11 - 04/13/10 It is very sad that during this stressful situation, the owner misinterpreted the facts. Unfortunately in this day and age hospitals have to set procedures and be consistent. There have been times in the past when chances were taken to allow someone to "make payments" and 99 times out of a 100 people didn't stick to their word, especially if the animal was deceased. We offer care credit which is 90 days same as cash as well as we take most major credit cards. Owning pets are a responsibility, not a right and the responsibility of taking care of that animal falls on the owner, not the veterinarian. If the cat was suffering, it should have been seen sooner. We offer IV cathater placement (thus the extra $30) when the owner wants to be present, so they can snuggle and hold their animal close while still allowing us to acess the vein easily. On debilitated animals it can be very difficult to even hit a vein, so when we know how emotional this is for the owners we want to make the passing as gentle and caring as possible thus the IV cathetar. Many times a tranqulizer will be given prior to ease in the passing whether the owner is present or not. When the owner doesn't want to be present, we still treat the patient with love and care and respect, for we all have had our own personal animal need help with their passing. We don't place a cathertar then because we have trained staff that can help isolate the vein and place the animal in an appropriate position to dispense the medicine into the vein. Our hospital have recieved many "thank you's" and letters of appreciation over the years especially when dealing with end of life issues and the difficult decision to euthanize. The letter above in no way reflects the good reputation our hospital has and really just comes down to the issue of money and not the care they recieve.