Sorry- this is a rant!
Some of you may recall my fury that the veterinary hospital wouldn't listen when I said Cassie's recent near-death pancreatitis could not be caused by bad, high-fat feeding. It's got worse. I had to take her back to my own vet today to check she is still improving and he showed me the supposedly confidential hospital report. I am fuming. All the medical stuff was as expected until the end which went something like 'have recommended change of regime to low fat diet. Scraps, unsuitable foods and treats like eggs and pilchards in oil have been common." I am just incredulous - as was my vet who knows us all well. It serves me right for being totally honest.
The hospital admitted she was not overweight - she weighed 11.5 kilos at the outset and is now down to 10.5 because of the illness. I told them that she gets Burns and vegetables, with
occasional sensible table scraps - and I mean 'sensible'; a bit of leftover rice or pasta or fish. She never gets cakes, biscuits, fatty trimmings, ice cream, cheese, sausages, roast potatoes and all the other things that virtually every other owner seems to chuck at their dogs as a matter of course, and the only sandwiches she gets are the ones she occasionally manages to steal. I might as well have saved my breath. I was probably a fool to volunteer the fact that she gets a hardboiled egg if we are out on a particularly demanding full day's fell-walking and twice a month they both get a tin of sardines with the oil drained off. Both were recommended by my previous vet as a good antidote to joint and coat problems and they loved it. And for this I am being treated as the cretin who has given her dog pancreatitis!!!!
Which is a blimin' good excuse for them not to look for anything else.
My vet understands my anger. He said he would be out of the small animal business if all owners fed their dogs as wisely as we do. He is still firmly convinced that the illness comes from an infection caused by something in the environment - maybe in the becks or even something leaking from one of the farms. But I am still absolutely livid (a) that the hospital listens so little and assumes so much and (b) charges thousands of pounds for dishing out stereotyped advice. And this is supposed to be one of the top veterinary hospitals in the country.
Has anyone else experienced this kind of supercilious, arrogant, thoughtless treatment?