I need peoples opinion on what you'd do!

[jessdotdotdot]

Okay, this will be quite long so bare with me.

I brought my cat in to the ER for suspected IG blockage. After reviewing the X-rays, we were told he needed emergency surgery to remove the blockage. The prices at the ER vet were REDICULOUS. BUT, the ER was very nice about it and actually called around to other ER's to get estimates. They found a place that was willing to do it for us for half the price and we could bring my cat there right then and there. They told us that the place we were going to bring my cat was ONLY a night vet so I'd have to pick my cat up in the morning and bring him to his primary care vet for after surgery care for the rest of the day and I could take my cat home later that night if everything was going well. They ALSO said they work closely with our day vet and they do this all the time. So that was the plan.
We drove to the night vet and dropped my cat off to get the surgery. He was finished with the surgery around 3am and it went well. I picked my cat up at 7:30 that morning ( 4.5 hours after surgery), they faxed everything to my day vet that they would need and I drove her to her day vet.
This is where I need peoples opinion.
So I get to my day vet which is his primary care vet with my cat. I walk in and they're looking at me with confusion. They look at there fax machine and say they're gonna talk to the doctor. The doctor looked over everything and came down to me and says " We can't take your cat. We don't even do that surgery here. We're not a 24 hour vet, so you need to take him somewhere else." My cat had a catheter STILL in his arm, he kept pulling the cone on off his head and biting his catheter, AND HE WAS 4.5 HOURS AFTER A SERIOIS SURGERY.
I was super mad, super upset, and thought it was completely inappropriate for them to do that. I ended up taking my cat BACK to the ER, luckily they took him in for after surgery care.

Would you want to switch vets if your vet did this to you? Do you think that was messed up of them and the wrong way and the unproffesional way to go about it? Because I personally don't want to go back. It made me feel like they could care less about MY baby who had just been through a lot. I just want other people's opinions. If it was you, would you find somewhere else to go?

 

[Primula]

I think the fault is yours in that you didn't check with your regular vet that what the ER vet said was true. You took the ER vet's word that your regular vet would do the after-surgery care. You are upset that this was not the case. If you had checked with your regular vet first he would have told you this.

Also, I would not have taken my cat for surgery in one place (especially a night vet - had a very bad experience with that) and then taken him to my regular vet for after-surgery care. To me that makes no sense.

 

[jessdotdotdot]

My vet was closed at midnight when I needed to make the decision for my cat to have the emergency surgery. I had NO CHOICE but to take not one ER vets word about it, but TWO that my day vet would take them. I needed to get my cat into surgery as soon as possible, but didn't have the $5500 the first ER vet was asking for. I needed a cheaper estimate in order to save my kitten. So I did what I thought was best, and took him somewhere that was going to charge $2400.

I agree, I should have prolly called them before arriving instead of taking someone's word, but they seemed so confident. But once I got there, how they worded everything about turning him away and what they said to me was the complete wrong way to say it. Especially with what I had just went through.

Everything I did was in the best effort for my cat.

 

[Freedom]

I am sorry that this happened to you and your cat.  Is kitty home now, and doing well?  Sure hope so!

I think you need to advise BOTH the ER Vet and the Night Vet (who did the surgery) of what happened.  They need to know not to be telling folks one thing when another is what will happen.

AND I would do that in person, and ask for names of vets they work with who DO accept pets for follow up care.  Then call those places, find out if it is true.

THEN decide if you switch vets, and to which one.  I wouldn't say much to the vet practice where you are at; you may end up staying there.  But at least now, you know they will not accept a pet for post op care.

And I hope you never NEED a vet for post op care again.

In the end, assuming kitty is home and doing well, everything worked well for kitty, and for your wallet (I have 12 pets, down from 16, I know the wallet is a part of the equation!)  Again, I am sorry you had such a mix up.

 

[Primula]

I agree, I should have prolly called them before arriving instead of taking someone's word, but they seemed so confident. But once I got there, how they worded everything about turning him away and what they said to me was the complete wrong way to say it. Especially with what I had just went through.

In these litigious days, your regular vet may have gotten nervous when you brought your cat in for post-surgery care. Your cat did not have surgery in his office and some vets (and doctors) will not do another vet's post-surgery care. For example, UConn Medical Center recently refused to remove a cast from my wrist that another hospital had put on. They told me they never see a patient who is already casted.

 

[jessdotdotdot]

I am sorry that this happened to you and your cat.  Is kitty home now, and doing well?  Sure hope so!

I think you need to advise BOTH the ER Vet and the Night Vet (who did the surgery) of what happened.  They need to know not to be telling folks one thing when another is what will happen.

AND I would do that in person, and ask for names of vets they work with who DO accept pets for follow up care.  Then call those places, find out if it is true.

THEN decide if you switch vets, and to which one.  I wouldn't say much to the vet practice where you are at; you may end up staying there.  But at least now, you know they will not accept a pet for post op care.

And I hope you never NEED a vet for post op care again.

In the end, assuming kitty is home and doing well, everything worked well for kitty, and for your wallet (I have 12 pets, down from 16, I know the wallet is a part of the equation!)  Again, I am sorry you had such a mix up.

Thanks! My cat is home now and in recovery. Still in the water until 3-5 days, but he seems to be doing well. A lot better than he was 4.5 hours out of surgery!!

I advised the first ER vet I went to about it because they're the ones who ended up doing the after surgery care. I plan on calling the night vet and letting them know as well tonight about the problem I had so they stop telling customers that "they do this all the time".

But I think that's a great way to go about it! I'm gonna do exactly that. Just got to wait to switch so I have someone to take his stitches out in 10-14 days!!!

 

[jessdotdotdot]

Primula
Im not a fan of uconn either, haha. But I get what you mean, but in that moment... it was just extremely stressful and scary for me. And hearing them refuse to help my cat, broke my heart. Sounds to me like you live in/around my area, do you have any vets that you would recommend? And, even though I'm not sure I want to know the answer to it... but what night vet did you have a terrible time with?

 

[Primula]

Primula
Im not a fan of uconn either, haha. But I get what you mean, but in that moment... it was just extremely stressful and scary for me. And hearing them refuse to help my cat, broke my heart. Sounds to me like you live in/around my area, do you have any vets that you would recommend? And, even though I'm not sure I want to know the answer to it... but what night vet did you have a terrible time with?

After trial & error, we use Petcare, Raymond Road, West Hartford. All-female office in a house right near Whole Foods. Can't say they have never made a mistake, but Dr Mascola is helpful & I will stay with her at least for now.

Also had good luck with CVC, the 24/7 hospital on Oakwood in W.H. Very expensive.

Looby Loo was improperly spayed by a "cheaper" vet that our local shelter in E.H. was using. This vet, unbeknownst to me, had a daytime job selling pharmaceuticals & only practiced at night. He wanted to make amends & said he would re-do Looby. Guess what? He never showed up so Looby was there all night & half the next day. Husband told me to get her out of there! CVC successfully removed the remnant of ovarian tissue left behind for $700!

 

[jessdotdotdot]

After trial & error, we use Petcare, Raymond Road, West Hartford. All-female office in a house right near Whole Foods. Can't say they have never made a mistake, but Dr Mascola is helpful & I will stay with her at least for now.

Also had good luck with CVC, the 24/7 hospital on Oakwood in W.H. Very expensive.

Looby Loo was improperly spayed by a "cheaper" vet that our local shelter in E.H. was using. This vet, unbeknownst to me, had a daytime job selling pharmaceuticals & only practiced at night. He wanted to make amends & said he would re-do Looby. Guess what? He never showed up so Looby was there all night & half the next day. Husband told me to get her out of there! CVC successfully removed the remnant of ovarian tissue left behind for $700!

I called the ER vet in south Windsor I used for the after surgery care today to ask them to take the stitches out of my cat because I'm just too upset with my day vet. They said they were un able to due to the fact we were there for a referral and policy is they can't "take" others people's customers. Totally understandable, but crappy circumstances. But they gave me new vets I could look into since I'm upset with my day vet and pet care was one of them. So, I'll deff call them and see how they are.

CVC in W.H. used to be my ER vet I would choose until I brought my cat there for reoccurring ear infections and they told me that she had a polyp in her ear and they needed to remove the polyp for the ear infections to stop. So we paid $2400 on the surgery to get it done. They sent my cat home with me the following day and my cat wasn't acting right, so I kept trying to get a hold of the dr to talk to them about it, and after 3 calls of them saying "she's busy she'll get back to you" I brought my cat in again, for them to tell me the polyp was most likely cancerous and my cat became septic and we had to put her down that day. I now won't trust them with my cats which is why I drive all the way to south Windsor ER.

But that's absolutely awful for that night vet to do! Im so sorry! The night vet we went to was in Avon. They seemed to know what they were doing, other then them sending me to my day vet and having trouble there.

But thank you, I'll look into that vet!

 

[kittens mom]

Everyone was off here. However when a clinic hands you the information in the middle of the night and especially to a frantic pet owner I believe the person who assured you your vet would take the post op care carries most of the burden here. And if the day vet was your regular vet and had your cats records and treated her multiple times I think they overreacted.  The reality here is the vet hospital should have offered you some free follow up or at least a discount on any aftercare. Without admitting to any wrongdoing they could have apologized for the miscommunication and just made it right.

 

[Primula]

So the ER vet will not take out the stitches he put in! Unbelievable these people.

You will really like Petcare. Lauren Mascola the DVM is real nice & so are her numerous vet techs. They are not cheap by any means & I wish they had a senior discount. Don't be afraid to question everything there - I do since I don't always agree with them. In terms of full disclosure, I do not ever see a relief vet there. Only Lauren.

I've heard horror stories about CVC many times, but Lauren made me go there because it is really hard to remedy a botched spay & she said the surgeon there (Lindgren) was the only one who could do it. She was right & he was real nice & helpful.

My Harry died in July at Pieper Memorial Hospital in Middletown. He went into cardiac arrest post-surgery. He was only 10 months. To this day I don't know if Lauren was right to send him there, but nobody knew he had an underlying heart condition.

Keep in touch & let me know if I can help some more.

 

[jessdotdotdot]

Everyone was off here. However when a clinic hands you the information in the middle of the night and especially to a frantic pet owner I believe the person who assured you your vet would take the post op care carries most of the burden here. And if the day vet was your regular vet and had your cats records and treated her multiple times I think they overreacted.  The reality here is the vet hospital should have offered you some free follow up or at least a discount on any aftercare. Without admitting to any wrongdoing they could have apologized for the miscommunication and just made it right.

Yeah, I mean... I know I play a fault in this because I could have called before I got to my day vet and I didn't. But I'm just so upset on how things were handled and driving all over to get my cat somewhere to be taken care of 4.5 hours after he got his abdomen and small intestines cut open and sewn back together.
Today, after having home for the first night last night... I at least expected a phone call from my day vet to check up on him and I've heard nothing all day. I'm just very disappointed all together.

 

[jessdotdotdot]

So the ER vet will not take out the stitches he put in! Unbelievable these people.

You will really like Petcare. Lauren Mascola the DVM is real nice & so are her numerous vet techs. They are not cheap by any means & I wish they had a senior discount. Don't be afraid to question everything there - I do since I don't always agree with them. In terms of full disclosure, I do not ever see a relief vet there. Only Lauren.

I've heard horror stories about CVC many times, but Lauren made me go there because it is really hard to remedy a botched spay & she said the surgeon there (Lindgren) was the only one who could do it. She was right & he was real nice & helpful.

My Harry died in July at Pieper Memorial Hospital in Middletown. He went into cardiac arrest post-surgery. He was only 10 months. To this day I don't know if Lauren was right to send him there, but nobody knew he had an underlying heart condition.

Keep in touch & let me know if I can help some more.

South Windsor ER is the one who initially found the blockage and wanted to charge $5500 to remove it, but instead they found the Avon ER to do the surgery for cheaper for me. Then once my day vet in W.H. refused to take my cat, I brought him BACK to the South Windsor ER for them to do the after care. So once I picked him up from South Windsor, I asked if they would remove th stitches and that's when they told me they're not allowed. But I called the Avon vet tonight and they said they would, so my plan is to go there in 14 days to do that. Avon is who did the surgery.

That's the same doctor who did mine at CVC. I think he does all of the surgeries and everyone had GREAT things to say about him that worked there. He just should have done a biopsy first. I wouldn't of put my cat through that if I knew it was more than just a polyp. And then they still charged us to put our cat down the next day. But I'm happy they've been so good with you! If that didn't happen to one of my cats, I would prolly still be going to them for ER visits.

Your poor kitten [emoji]128148[/emoji] I'm so sorry. That's too young. Heart conditions are very hard to diagnose, I feel. I've never been to Pieper Memorial, but I have heard good things about them.

I appreciate all the help and advice you've given me today. It's nice to have a fellow CT friend here on this cat site. I will keep in touch!!!! Happy holidays!!

 

[kittens mom]

Yeah, I mean... I know I play a fault in this because I could have called before I got to my day vet and I didn't. But I'm just so upset on how things were handled and driving all over to get my cat somewhere to be taken care of 4.5 hours after he got his abdomen and small intestines cut open and sewn back together.
Today, after having home for the first night last night... I at least expected a phone call from my day vet to check up on him and I've heard nothing all day. I'm just very disappointed all together.

Pet owners are often caught between that rock and a hard place. We would move the earth to save them but the cost can be astronomical. In fact diagnosis can cost as much or more than the treatment. What you take away here is to not assume. Even though you should be able to assume that when you are told the night vet will refer your pets post op treatment to your regular vet.  Vets refer patients to each other ALL the time. I strongly suggest that you find a reputable veterinarian. In all honesty if they staff is a flustercluck in how the advise distraught pet owners what is going on behind the scenes that you can't see. I believe several posters have given some personal references to vets in your area. You might want to check them out. By law any vet you have used has to hand over all medical records for your pet to a new vet.

I am deep sorry for the stress that was added to your cat and you at a time of need. Shame on them. Both the night vet that performed the surgery and the ER hospital should have faxed or emailed the information to your regular vet.

We use a VCA hospital now. Yes it costs more. But our Kitten was murdered by an incompetent veterinarian that was local to where we live. Our veterinarian is a cat specialist. Again in this case the biggest chunk of fault falls on the vet hospital for not following though on a referral. And that should have went to the vet who performed the surgery and your regular vet via the ER vet hospital that referred you.