Cat mysteriously sick, then injured during overnight stay at vet

Hey guys, I'd like to hear you opinions on my cat's illness and her experience with the vet.

My 9 year old cat, Aeris, went to the vet on Tuesday because she'd gone off her feed because of what appeared to be an upper respiratory infection. The vet gave her antibiotics and recommended bloodwork, then told me to call back in a couple of days if she still wasn't eating or drinking enough. I spent the next couple of days constantly trying to get the her to eat and drink, with minimal success, although, oddly, she did seem to be feeling better. When the bloodwork came back, the vet told me she'd like to keep her overnight for observation and to give her dextrose through an IV, because her liver numbers were going a bit off and she appeared to be slightly anemic from some sort of internal bleeding they couldn't locate, though everything else seemed normal. (Hemoglobin at 18, when it should be at 22-25, I think.)

I assumed that, since she was there for observation, someone would be with her, but I got a call this morning that she had chewed off her IV catheter and it had been lost in her vein so they'd need to do surgery to get it out. Obviously, this won't help with the anemia. The vet said that she understands money is tight for me right now, and, because it was "nobody's fault", she would donate her time so that I wouldn't have to pay a huge bill for that surgery, though I'll probably still have to pay for x-rays and the gas anesthetic, etc. She encouraged me to take the cat home once she's recovered from this surgery and continue providing my own supportive care, as I was before this disaster, as the cat obviously won't tolerate the IV and she doesn't want the possible liability that caring for my cat on the premesis represents.

So, my questions: Does this seem fair to you? I'm trying not to overreact, but I feel like they failed in their responsibility to professionally monitor and provide supportive care for my pet, which was the entire purpose of the overnight stay.

And has anyone had a cat with mysterious internal bleeding after a sinus infection along with loss of appetite?  She had a pin and plate put in her leg a couple of years ago (part of why I'm currently a bit poor), but the leg seems to be giving her no pain, and no one else thinks it's a factor. It's very strange, but she does seem to be getting better, she's just not eating or drinking as much as we'd like. I've been giving her Pedialyte by syringe to help with the dehydration, and I'll continue that along with the feeding as needed over the weekend.

Also, more generally, what brands of wet food are best for your pet? I've seen a lot of conflicting information out there, and my previous vet told me that vets receive next to no nutritional training and they honestly just recommend whatever company gives them the best sponsorship.

Thanks for any advice or insight you can offer; I really appreciate it!

The vet sounds a bit clueless, but at least he is not charging you for their mistake. Do you like this place or can you go someplace else in future?

I cannot help with anything else you ask except for wet food. My two lovely adult females love Fancy
Feast wet & dry. Some people do not recommend it, but it works for us. I like the size of the cans - 3 ounces - and I like the huge variety of flavors. Mine get meat in the a.m., fish in the p.m. And kibble in between.

That's the thing, though - the x-rays and the anesthetic wouldn't have been necessary without this issue, and she's still charging me for those.

I've had some bad luck with vets, sadly. One told me that he had specialty training in Orthopedics, which I later found out (from his wife, of all people!) that he was lying. Another was very much of the opinion that I shouldn't be upset because "It's just a cat" and made fun of her name in a very mean spirited way. I moved to a rural area, and this is the last one within thirty miles, so I really wanted to make this work, but I think you're right and I might have to go further afield in the future.

Thanks for the rec on food; I've been trying to get her and her brother off kibble for a while now, but it's been hard going. I've heard, for instance, that Friskies isn't very good, but that's most of what they sell here.

Some vets are good, some vets are not. One of my cats was spayed improperly & it cost me $700 to have it remediated.

Why are you wanting to get them off kibble? My cats like to be able to snack whenever they want. As to Friskies, I don't worry much about what is good or bad. We have a basement literally full of "wonderful cat food" that none of our cats will touch!

Her surgeon recommended that I switch to keep down her weight, and lower the stress on her bionic leg. It worked for a while; I was giving them the wet and gradually bringing down the amount of kibble I'd give for grazing, but one day they just decided that they didn't want the wet food anymore at all, no matter what flavor I offered them.

She's home now. Blood levels bounced back. I'm baffled, but relieved, so now I just have to dose her with antibiotics and make sure she's getting food and water in her system.

I would not be happy with the vet charging me for what happened under their watch. She chewed off her IV but they should arrange things so that can't happen when the cat is not directly supervised; they kept her overnight for observation so where was the observation? My vet has come to know my accident prone boy fairly well and makes choices on his care with the understanding that if there is some way he can mess with the treatment that he will. You would never see her leave him unsupervised with an IV for a prolonged period; he would do the same or pull it out or strangle himself or something.

While waiving the staff fee is welcomed I would have wanted the whole thing free but I would probably have been willing to pay a reduced amount (ie their cost) for the supplies if they pushed it. It comes down to the cat was there for observation at the vets request, obviously wasn't observed, and something preventable happened because of a lack of observation. Honestly, from the business side of things the cost of those two things to the company is not worth charging for when it is something they should have prevented in the first place. Between the mistake made and charging you for it, I would go elsewhere but I also live where there are several vets within a 10 mile radius. 

As to food, its better that they eat then they eat what we think is best sometimes. Mine get free fed kibble (Nature's Variety Instinct) and a can of wet food in the evening (Fancy Fest). Some cats that have been on kibble for years just won't switch off it. If yours are that way, I would stop trying to force it and just get them on the best version of kibble they will eat. Since weight is an issue, you do need to monitor calorie intake but with a low carb, high protein food she should feel full and eat less. If she is gaining weight with free feeding you can try microchip tags to portion control cats independently or measure out a daily amount of food and top off the bowl throughout the day to give them a limit for the day. 

Good post above. Actually I did change my cats' meals a bit. I noticed that if I left the kibble down 24/7 they would not pay enough attention to their wet food & food was being wasted. So what I do now is remove the kibble until at least most of the wet food is gone. They have their fish can at 6 p.m., but no kibble is put down until we all start winding down for the night at around 9.30 p.m.

In my opinion they were negligent and should not charge you at all. Why would they keep the cat for observation and then fail to observe him while he was chewing off the IV? It seems to me they wanted to charge you for keeping him overnight, and that resulted in your cat being injured. They should compensate you for your cat unnecessary suffering due to their incompetence.

Thanks for the perspective, guy; we worked something out. I have an anxiety disorder, and with all these bad experiences I just wanted to make sure it wasn't just me over-reacting to a situation others would consider normal. I looked around online and discovered that the vets in most states don't have to tell you that your animal will be unattended overnight, so chalk it up to another lesson learned. Honestly, if it weren't for the blood loss and the fact that the vet said that she might need a transfusion if it got any worse, I wouldn't have done it.

She's eating a little bit on her own between syringe feedings now and using the bathroom again. Never thought I'd be so excited to see a cat poop!  I'm still having a lot of trouble getting more than about fifteen MLs in her every couple of hours, though. I think her stomach shrank. The threads here have been very helpful.

I've dealt with this a bit here, my cat has had to have many overnight stays over the course of a month at various hospitals. There are different kinds of overnight stays here - one kind where he stays in hospital and is checked once in a while but not monitored 24/7 (eg the vets or more likely vet techs or nurses come by several times per day to administer medications, check on him, clean the litter, feed, etc). The is another type I've heard of where the pet is literally under 24/7 watch, maybe via camera, but someone is always monitoring him - that type is much more expensive.

Several times my cat has pulled out catheters during his stays because nobody was looking. I really didn't blame the hospital for that part (trust me there were a lot of other things to blame them for) because I did not expect him to be under 24/7 observation, just regular checks or monitoring. If they had explicitly recommended keeping him for 24-hour watch I would have done so and then yes, I would have been very upset if they allowed something like ripping out a catheter to happen.

I don't know if this is how vet hospitals work where you are, but maybe it is something similar - maybe by "observation" they meant someone coming around every couple of hours or so to check on him and such and not necessarily someone sitting there constantly observing him. As upset and angry as I would be if this happened in the "check-up" mode stay, it wouldn't really be so black and white in terms of who'd have to pay for this kind of correction, or who the blame lies with, though I would definitely appreciate the vet donating his/her time. I would definitely ask for all of my cat's journals and make sure I had all the information about when they were meant to check on the cat exactly, how long it took them to notice the problem, etc.

I am unfortunately no stranger to bad experiences with vets - the entire incident above was caused by a vet's screwup during what was meant to be a routine surgery, and more frustration and screwups followed afterwards that almost killed my cat. I was so angry at so many things for such a long time after everything happened and it still makes me angry when I think back on it. I hope your cat has a good recovery and that you get some sort of closure and resolution with this incident and what actually happened.