MY DOG HAS DIED AFTER ACACIA VISIT.
My family had an 80 pound beautiful, healthy, young Bluetick Coonhound that was still with us only 48 hours ago. She passed at 5.5 years of age. Her name was Paisl... Read More
MY DOG HAS DIED AFTER ACACIA VISIT.
My family had an 80 pound beautiful, healthy, young Bluetick Coonhound that was still with us only 48 hours ago. She passed at 5.5 years of age. Her name was Paisley.
On May 15th, I had taken Paisley into Acacia pet clinic because she had stopped eating, barely would drink water, would lay flat on the ground still or not move a muscle for extended periods of time, and had visual swelling on her left side lower abdomen (approximately the stomach region). Our initial guess was bloat or some other stomach problem. We immediately brought her in for a full physical evaluation and expected the doctor (Shazia) to know what to do. The clinic performed a blood panel as well as an X-ray to determine if there was noticeable bloat. Neither test showed definite signs of problems, yet there was obviously something seriously wrong with Paisley. I was reassured by the doctor that a bacterial infection could have taken place, and that antibiotics would be a good solution for Paisley.
We were given up to two weeks of antibiotics, and for the next weeks, we kept her on this regimen and monitored her as full recovery was explained to take possibly 3 weeks or more. Within the first week, Paisley became more active than before (considering she was almost bed-ridden prior), so we believed that things were getting better. Paisley never fully recovered, and just before we were to take her back in, she suddenly passed away the morning of June 18, 2017.
Necropsy found an approximately 8-9" long barbeque skewer in her stomach that had punctured her organs, causing internal hemorrhaging, which she finally succumbed to. To all the dog lovers reading this, I find peace in knowing that she passed away in the comfort of her favorite spot on the couch, just after giving her last goodbyes.
If I had even the slightest clue that her condition had come what it had, I can assure you she would have gone to the closest emergency clinic and receive all the care possible to comfort and heal her. However, having been told that that she was recovering from a bacterial infection (possible spleen/other organ swelling due to recovery) we did not believe she had swallowed such an object as a hard wooden skewer. Something like this should have come up on imaging, right?
My wish is that no other pet or pet owner suffers a terrible loss as this one, especially for something that was so avoidable and fixable. The second vet I took Paisley to for necropsy asked if the skewer showed up on the ultrasound. But an ultrasound was never done. Why wasn't an ultrasound done? Dogs eat things, strange things, all the time. Why wasn't this included as a default detection method for Acacia? We rely on our vets, we TRUST our vets to do the things that we as dog owners may not know will help find the solution.
Moreover, we reviewed the x-ray that was taken and found that it was impossibly blurry (why wasn't the x-ray taken over?) such that one could barely even make out the stomach or other organs which are typically visible to some degree. Multiple ghost images of the spine suggest that the x-ray was taken while there was motion, so of course the rest of the image was blurry. You will be charged almost $300 for an x-ray that they don't even quality check. They should have taken it again!
You don't have to read too far into the comments to make a good assessment on the quality of Acacia pet clinic. If you want to get your pet's vaccines taken care of, then Acacia is probably sufferable. However, if your pet has a serious problem, DO NOT TAKE HIM/HER TO ACACIA PET CLINIC.
My future pet and all the pets of all my friends, family, and acquaintances will NOT EVER be going to Acacia pet clinic as they will take your money and ask what YOU want to do with your pet as opposed to telling you what needs to be done.
THAT is a risk I hope no other pet owner gambles with, ever. Read Less