This is a long story but will try to make it brief....I had waited 2.1/2 years until my Rio was old enough to have a litter, with the sole purpose of keeping one. Puppies duly arrived, 3 blue dogs; 1 blue bitch and 1 orange bitch. The orange was mine! I called her "Rosie".
At 6.30am 15th May I noticed she looked unwell and seemed to be in pain with her stomach. Straight to the vet when they opened. Vet (lets call her Ann) suspected an intussusception and x-rayed/scanned. She found a 'sausage' shape in her stomach and told me if they didn't operate Rosie would die. Two vets did the op - Ann and (lets call him Sam). No intussusception but an inflamed bowel with a build up of mucus. For some reason they removed this part of the bowel when it should have been treated with anit-biotics and steriods (have consulted 2 other vets who both said this). I was told by Ann that she had phoned RCVS Cambridge re feeding and they had said liquivite. I was not happy with this, only started to wean 3 days prior to this onto tiny amounts of Lactol - Ann not happy either, she told me the operation site not sewn together well and was "leaking" hence the risk of fatal peritonitis. Why did they not sew 'good' ends together I ask, but leave it leaking?
We arranged to keep Rosie on fluids (drip in place) and I would take Rio in to feed her. THESE WERE MY WISHES AND THE ARRANGEMENT. Sam took Rosie home that night. Phoned next morning first thing, Rosie was bright and walking round the cage - great news!! Phoned again couple of hours later to be told she had been force-fed 15ml of liquivite via a syringe. NOT GOOD NEWS - told them of the arrangement to take Rio in, but reply was "Cambridge said...." I took myself to the practice to see what was going on as I was not happy. Walked in to find Rosie with no heat-pad; no heating in the room (I had a fleece on it was cold) lying on her stomach face down in dry vomit. The nurse said "well shes only just done it" and then informed me she had force-fed her
another 10mls of liquivite during the time it took me to get there.
Sam was present and I asked him why there was no heat-pad - his reply? "her temperature come down and we don't want to over heat her!!" this pup was 3.1/2 weeks old - even I know puppies this age can't retainbody heat and this one had just had major surgery. Nurse handed Rosie to me and I saw she had faeces/urine on her back-end - nurse layed her back down on clean vet-bed and covered her with vet-bed that had vomit on one corner.
I was not at all happy. Came home, phoned the Head Vet, told him what I had found and after discussing the alternatives, Rosie comes home. I got clean vet-bed in a clean bread-crate, positioned a heat-lamp over it and put a hook on the door for the drip. Arrived to collect Rosie - she was obviously very ill. Nurse handed her to me and I saw she still had the mess round her back end and had opened her bowels again. I said "you haven't even bothered to clean her up have you?" Nurse said "shes only just done it" I replied it was there when I saw her before and that I was VERY VERY ANGRY. Sam present but quickly left the area.
Went to reception with Rosie in blanket and wrapped up hot water bottle. Was handed a can of "Hills Science Diet Protein Dog Food" to feed her with - had they not been giving her liquivite?
and should not have been???
Arrived home put Rosie straight on vet-bed, switched on heat lamp, hung up drip. Went and washed my hands and set about trying to get some of the mess off her hind quarters with damp cotton wool. There was faeces/urine around her back end; down her back legs - around the scar area also. Urine even down her sides - she had been lying in this all day, no doubt. She smelt absolutely dreadful. There was even dry vomit on the plaster covering the drip.
I did my best to get it off without much success as it was dried on. Lay Rosie back on vet-bed and watched her constantly. I had noticed her breathing was 'raspy' and there was what looked like food bubbling out of her nose. I've had dogs for 30 years plus, have bred; shown; judged etc and this puppy had all the typical signs of having food in her lungs.
Rosie was twitching and appeared to be deeply asleep. Within 15/20minutes she gave a cough and stopped breathing. At first I couldn't believe she had died, I put my hand on her side, touched her muzzle but there were no signs of life. I removed the drip, picked her up, sat on the sofa and sobbed.
Showed her to Rio who was very distressed and kept nudging her, so crying my eyes out I put Rosie in a small towel, in a shoe box on my kitchen worktop - evenso Rio tried to jump up to her.
This puppy was operated on when she shouldn't have been; was left cold; lying in faeces; urine and vomit and then force-fed liquivite via a syringe. My wishes and arrangements for feeding were totally ignored.
I feel so very guilty for taking her there in the first place, and betrayed by the vet in question. I also lost the pup I had been waiting over 2 years for. However, 3 couples came to look at one of the blue roan dogs and I said no to them all - I'm very careful where my puppies go - so he's staying with me and his mum. I've called him Blue and he's the one positive thing to come out of this whole mess.
I'm finishing the story now. A lot more has happened as you can imagine, but its too lengthy to write here.
I took my sick 3.1/2 week old puppy to the vet and trusted them with her care and indeed her life. They made a catalogue of errors. Its a memory that will stay with me for a very very long time.
