I just have to say this
We had taken Greenie to the vet’s on Merdeka Day. She had been suffering from skin problems and I just felt we needed to do something for her. I’d called her regular vet and asked if perhaps we should have blood tests done on her. Since he’s a mobile vet, he said he wouldn’t be able to do it, and we’d have to take her to a regular vet.
I went to a vet clinic in the neighbourhood and found that they would be opened on Merdeka Day. So we took her there, and because it was her first time at a vet, she was restless, so the vet said she would have to give Greenie an injection to sedate her. Apparently the sedation would last 30 minutes.
Greenie continued to sleep even after we took her home. Before I left around 4ish, I went to look at her, she was trying to stand but still looking groggy.
By the next morning, she was dead. My nephew later told me he’d been in touch with the vet a few times from the previous evening till when they found her dead. The first time, at around 8 pm, he’d called to ask if it was okay to feed her, and the vet said yes. So he fed Greenie some water and food, but she refused the food. Around midnight, he called the vet again because Greenie was crying in pain and beginning to foam at the mouth. Apparently, the vet said to just leave it. The next morning, when my nephew called to say Greenie had died, the vet said she would come by around 10 a.m. to have a look.
But the vet never showed up. When we called her to ask what time she would come by, she said she had sent another vet. Well, we had two visitors who said they were from the clinic and told by the vet to come and collect the bag of food and two bottles of medicated shampoo that we’d bought the previous day. But they did not identify themselves as doctors. Later, they came again while I was out, but they merely repeated what the vet had said over the phone in the morning - that Greenie probably died from water in her lungs.
Huh? I checked with my nephew and he said Greenie did not choke when she drank the water. He said she was probably too groggy to know water had gone into her lungs. Huh? Is that possible?
It’s two days since Greenie died. I haven’t stopped feeling guilty for my part in her death. I was the one who’d decided on which vet to send her, even though it was a vet we’d never used. I based my decision on the fact that the vet clinic was in the neighbourhood and open on a public holiday.
I’ve been going through the event over and over in my head. At first, I thought it might be a combination of the anaesthetic the vet had injected her, and a heartworm prevention jab. Later, after reading up a bit more on it, I realised Greenie was probably allergic to the anaesthesia.
But what really upsets - no, angers - me more than anything is the vet’s irresponsible behaviour. To say she would come to the house to look at the body, but never did.
This vet has a cute web site with a picture of herself. There was an email address so I wrote to her. I ended my email by saying I would never recommend any of my friends to take their pets to her clinic.
When I sat down to write this entry, I was going to reveal the name of the clinic. But I won’t. Not yet anyway. However, if you’re reading this and you have pets, tell me if you want to know the name of the clinic so that you’ll know not to take your pets there for treatment. For now, all I’ll reveal is that it’s a shop along the same row as The Ship in Damansara Utama.
For some reason, I have no doubt the vet is a good vet, but for now, being a good vet does not mean anything if the follow-up - breaking a promise to come by the house to see the body - is so totally irresponsible.
And no, she never replied my email.
