I moved to MacQueens as I was disenchanted with my old vets. My cat was getting old and I wanted her to have the best possible care. The person who recommended them did so on the basis of their orthop... Read More
I moved to MacQueens as I was disenchanted with my old vets. My cat was getting old and I wanted her to have the best possible care. The person who recommended them did so on the basis of their orthopaedic work, I now realise, not their day-to-day veterinary care. We were clients of MacQueens for 4 months.
My cat was fairly relaxed there but I didn€t like that in-patient cats and dogs were housed together.
The vets are part-time and some work so few hours it seems to me they are just keeping their hand in rather than being dedicated to their profession. This leads to a lack of continuity of care € we rarely saw the same vet twice.
I detected a great deal of complacency, even insolence, in some vets and nursing staff. Everything was done to their convenience. I believe this led to my cat€s final illness not being properly diagnosed for 3 weeks. I don't think they really cared about her.
The news of her probably having cancer was given bluntly. She stayed at MacQueens for diagnostics and two days later it was confirmed. Even before it was confirmed, I was pressured towards euthanasia more than once. Treatment was not mentioned until the last day, and I had been positioned for euthanasia so all this did was confuse me.
Even though the confirmation of her illness was not unexpected, left alone for perhaps 15 mins to decide whether to euthanise my cat or not, my thought processes went haywire. I couldn€t process everything I had been told. I have spoken to pet owners since who, in a similar situation, experienced much the same. Panic, denial, an inability to think straight, a failure to grasp the finality of what was about to happen, a failure to take control of the situation. In the days afterwards, I realised that although her lymphoma was advanced, my cat did not need to be put to sleep within the hour, which is what happened. She was not in pain, not in crisis, and there was no need for me to make such a quick decision.
My cat was terminally ill and it was right to euthanise her but the decision was made in a vet-induced panic. The vet showed little understanding of what I was going through, everything was done in a €tick box€ fashion.
My cat was brought to me so that we could spend some time together before she was euthanised. But the vet disappeared without giving me any indication of when she would be back. My cat and I had perhaps 15 mins together and I spent a lot of that time wondering how much longer we had. It was not possible for me to get into the right frame of mind to spend €quality time€ with my cat and make peace with what was about to happen. The situation seemed surreal.
The vet was efficient and my cat passed away in my arms with no sign that she felt anything but, when I asked if my cat had gone, the vet€s response was €you€ll have to move your arm€. It felt like a knife. She left the room, never to be seen again.
Eight weeks on I am not just missing my cat but have what feels like an open wound through not having had sufficient time and help to properly say goodbye to her. There was a total lack of respect shown for the bond between us.
I wrote a long letter of complaint to Ian MacQueen thinking he'd be horrified at what had happened but, when he called me, he defended his vets, tried to discredit my version of events and showed scant regard for my complaints, none of which he addressed individually. He did say something non-specific about €making improvements€, and I hope he does. He followed up with a letter in which he said that the welfare of animals under their care is of primary importance, and I have no argument with that, but he seems to think this means that consideration of owners€ feelings is beneath their dignity and not part of their remit as professionals. I disagree. We are not just the chumps that pay their colossal bills. The loss of a beloved companion animal should be sympathetically managed. The process I was put through was horrible.
If you want a personal, caring service I suggest you avoid MacQueens. I wish I€d never heard of them.
RIP, my darling Bootsie. Read Less