Unfortunately our cat was diagnosed recently with untreatable cancer in his mouth at 8 years old.
I first took him to All Creatures because he was dribbling a lot, and as I didn't expect it to be any... Read More
Unfortunately our cat was diagnosed recently with untreatable cancer in his mouth at 8 years old.
I first took him to All Creatures because he was dribbling a lot, and as I didn't expect it to be anything serious, I didn't ask to see their most experienced vet.
This turned out to be a big mistake!
The young female vet I saw was very abrupt with us when she looked in his mouth, and more or less wrote him off there and then.
My son and I were understandably very taken aback, and when we asked her what we could do to help him she was quite dismissive, implying there was no point. However she did suggest we pay to have a biopsy taken to confirm the diagnosis.
A week later the dianosis was sadly confirmed, so I decided to make an appointment to see the more experienced vet at the practice to discuss with him ways in which we could keep our cat comfortable, for as long as possible.
We discussed various possibilities, but came to the joint agreement that he would be given pain relief with anti-inflammatory properties, and also antibiotic cover, to help prevent infection for as long as needed.
This treatment worked very well for quite a while, he was able to eat, seemed reasonably content and didn't appear to be in pain.
However when I started to run low on antibiotics, and called the vets to get replacements, unfortunately the experienced vet was on holiday, and when asked, the inexperienced female vet refused to give them to him, saying she didn't see the point!
I asked that she telephone me to explain herself and when she did she was extremely rude to me, she even suggested that my 2 other cats would become immune to antibiotics because my sick cat was taking them orally. I argued that I didn't want to make my sick cat more uncomfortable with an infected ulcerated mouth, and that the antibiotics had prevented this to date. Prevention is better than cure after all.
However she continued to refuse and was quite unpleasant, showing no consideration at all for my feelings, or the welfare of my cat.
I was absolutely appalled by her lack of empathy and refusal to do what was right for my cats welfare and because of her negligence, I was forced to take him to another vet recommended by Foal Farm Animal Rescue the same day, where we saw a very experienced vet called Mark Nelson.
I explained to him what had happened in detail, and he could not understand why she would not continue with his antibiotic cover, he reassured me he often used antibiotic cover for cats with this condition and found it to be most helpful. He also said that her theory on my other cats immunity being compromised was just that, an unproven theory.
Mark will be managing my cats care from now on.
Because I was so appalled with the treatment we received, I wrote a letter of complaint to the surgery over 2 weeks ago, explaining my concerns about the mismanagement of my cats care. I have not received a reply as yet, 20 days later. Read Less