Wow! Is it just me, or can we not trust the medical system? EVEN VETERINARY MEDICINE?
I have had my Cuban Descent Chihuahua, Roscoe P. Coltrain, since he was born. Yep, you guessed it, Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrain from Dukes of Hazzard! He is 9 years old this October 25. He is the bestest dowg! But during the past year or two, he has been losing teeth at an advanced rate. The vet says it's kinda normal in small dogs, especially the Chihuahua breed. Well, OK, I guess I can understand that.
Roscoe P. Coltrain circa 2012
Batman for sure!
Recently, under Roscoe's right eye developed a big knot. It came up over night it seemed, but didn't seem to bother him or cause him any pain. I called the vet and was advised that he may have been bitten by an insect. We live in the desert in Southeastern Arizona where there are plenty of bees, fire ants, scorpions, and the like so it just made sense.
By the next day, the knot was smaller and by that evening, it was all but gone.
Well, a couple of weeks went by and the knot returned. Puzzled, I called the vet and was advised to bring him in for an office visit.
Ok, so I arrive and the vet said that it was an assessed tooth under the eye socket, which is dangerous. She recommended oral surgery the following week. She sent me home with a weeks worth of antibiotics and the knot was gone by the surgery date.
Roscoe's surgery seemed to go well. But when I got him home, I noticed a little spot of what appeared to be blood under the skin of his right front leg in the "armpit" area if you know where I'm talking about. It was painful to him but he seemed to be healing ok for a day or two. On the fifth day after surgery, I picked him up and he screamed as if I were killing him. I looked under his leg and it was like the skin was just falling off. Then, I looked under his other front leg and the same thing was happening. I panicked and called the vet. They told me to bring him the next morning.
When I arrived, the vet said that, "You're not going to like what I have to tell you."
Holy crap! Was he dying? WTF was going on?
"We burned him during surgery." She said somewhat meekly.
"YOU WHAT?" I screamed!
She proceeded to tell me that when a dog goes under anesthesia, their body temperature can get dangerously low, so they put them on heating pads. BUT... Theirs has broken, so instead of cancelling the surgery, they filled some linen bags with rice and stuck a heating element into it and laid my Roscoe on it for 45 minutes while they did the surgery. AND 5 OTHER DOGS WERE BURNED THAT DAY AS WELL!
OMFG! I couldn't believe what she was saying!
"Of course we'll treat him for the burns at no charge." She said, as if she was doing me a favor.
"You're damned right you will, and you'll reverse the charges for the surgery as well!" I said demandingly.
Well long story short, no charges for the surgery and Roscoe is healing nicely here at home with pain meds and antibiotics supplied by the vet at their expense. And since I live so far away from them, they are even paying for my gas!
Roscoe is a real trooper, he has no voice, (and no teeth now) so I'll be contacting the State Veterinarian Board and asking for an investigation of the hospital and its practices. I hope the other dogs that were burned that day are ok as well.
This really opened my eyes on the whole system, it's all for the money. They could've postponed those surgeries that day until they got a new heating pad that was up to operating standards, but profits must come first, right?
Thanks for reading my post!
@Lymmerik