Was my vet to blame?

My first post, sorry it's so long...

We adopted our beautiful Genghis (now aged 6) in August last year from a Rescue centre who told us at the time that he had a grade one heart murmur. I immediately registered him with my local practice and mentioned that his heart murmur should be made a note of.

About a week ago I thought he may have been breathing a bit heavily, I pointed it out to my partner but he couldn’t see it and we decided I was just being overprotective.

On the evening of 15^th I noticed it again so decided to bring Genghis in for the first appointment on Thursday morning (16^th). Genghis was pretty happy, eating and drinking with no obvious signs of illness other than his heavy breathing and an occasional night time cough, he was even purring in his box in the waiting room.  I provided the vet with some history, mentioning the heart murmur, he then listened and felt, noted that his breathing was laboured and his abdomen swollen, he gave him a shot of antibiotics and steroids and told me to bring him back in two days.

I stayed at home with Genghis as I was sick myself and kept a close eye on him throughout the day. Usually, without fail, Genghis will purr and chirrup when I stroke him but during the afternoon he just stopped. He also stopped eating his favorite treats and he could not get comfortable, he was obviously exhausted and wanted to lay down but every time he tried to he struggled to breathe even more and had to sit up again. 

I took him back to the vet at around 4:45pm as I was really worried. He was incredible stressed, he breathing was terribly laboured, when I put him in his box again he started panting and wheezing, he was terrified, we saw the same vet who gave him a diuretic and said to bring him back first thing in the morning.

We went home again, Genghis was still very poorly, I phoned my mum who said ‘can’t they keep him in overnight’. I phoned and was told, yes, bring him in, we’ll hospitalize him. So this is the third time my poor, stressed, now dying, baby has been taken in. This time I saw a very kind, younger male vet (Matthew?) who gave him some oxygen but by then he was in heart failure and very sadly had to be put to sleep. I'me heartbroken.

So there’s what happened.

My questions are as follows:

[if !supportLists]1)     1. Why did the first vet administer a steroid injection when a layman such as myself can (subsequently) very quickly find out that this can cause congestive heart failure in a cat with a known heart condition?

[if !supportLists]2)     2. If the steroid injection did not contribute to Genghis’s heart failure then, why was the seriousness of his condition not spotted during the first consultation, rather than the third, when he was literally dying in front of us.

[if !supportLists]3)     I'm also concerned that the same vet ask me my cat’s age no less than four times during the two consultations I had with him? Was he not listening or is he losing his memory, did he not read my cat’s notes?

I am quite aware that Genghis was already poorly, in retrospect his abdomen had been a bit swollen for a while, however he appeared his very happy, chirpy, normal self up until he was given the steroid shot, after that he went downhill incredibly rapidly. 

I’m fully aware that I am grieving and that many things run through one’s mind after a bereavement however, that aside, I can’t help thinking that if I had seen a different vet when I came in as 9am I would have gone home with a poorly cat whose health needed close management rather than an empty carrier. 

Just wondered if the vet is to blame for expediting my darling baby boy's exit from this world or am I just being oversensitive? 

Thanks in advance. x

Firstly, IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT    

His apparently happy purring whilst in his basket was most likely stress purring.  Cats purr when they're in pain or distress too.

What I first wondered was why did your vet give Genghis an antibiotic?  Did he give you any reason?  The steroid I can see sense for, as cortisone (the steroid I'm guessing was used), is given to cats with respiratory difficulties, such as asthma and bronchitis.  It widens the size of the bronchi in the lungs, thus allowing more oxygen to be absorbed with any given breath.  Cats tolerate cortisone in very high doses and with frequent use, so I doubt whether its use on Genghis was the culprit.

However, antibiotics should only be given to combat a viral infection.  The reason why we have so many antibiotic resistant strains of flu is due to over-prescribing of antibiotics (and not completing the course).  I would have thought that your vet would have given him the cortisone and then waited to see how he responded, whilst he was still at the practice.  And, if he wasn't responding, to then administer further tests and treatment.  By the sound of things it should have been clear that Genghis was very poorly at this early stage.

That he then gave poor wee, pin-cushion, Genghis, an injection of diuretics is beyond my ken.  I don't see what making him pee would gain, unless he thought that his swollen abdomen was water retention?  

Being exhausted, listless, with a swollen abdomen, and not eating should have alerted your vet to the seriousness of his condition.  And he shouldn't have sent you away but kept Genghis at the practice for observation and a drip, to push vital nutrients into his body that were being missed out on due to his lack of appetite.  

The third vet's administering of oxygen should have been done at the 2nd visit.  I suspect Genghis may have developed asthma, which would account for the swelling, if his lungs were inflamed from coughing and wheezing.  And that the delay in treatment may have brought on his heart failure, exacerbated by his pre-existing heart condition. 

I think your vet might have been pumping your boy full of unnecessary drugs for either the money, or because he's incompetent and clueless.  He waived his magical veterinary authority and prescription medicine in your face, then hoped for the best.  But as I said, I think giving the steroid was probably the only piece of vetting (if there's a suitable definition of that word) that helped.  

That he didn't listen to you about his age, could suggest the vet was either drunk on the power behind his white coat, is going deaf, is truly incompetent, or has early dementia.

I'd ask for a breakdown and explanation of his treatment that day.  If your vet is incompetent, he shouldn't be allowed to practice, or should at least only practice under supervision.

I will hold my hands up right now to admit that I don't have any veterinary qualifications whatsoever.  And that my deducement of events may well be down to my watching too many episode of Sherlock Holmes.  However, it is at least one explanation to consider.  Your vets (both of them) should have given you, or will give you, another more qualified explanation.  I don't trust vets anymore after the same vet mis-treated one of my mum's cats and one of mine who subesquently died.  Trust your gut.

 

@GenghisB   I'm just wondering how you're doing and if you are ok