I brought our cat in this past Labor Day, as he had grown terribly ill over the weekend. He wasn't moving, wasn't eating and hadn't gone to the bathroom in 3 days. The emergency clinic had us take an ... Read More
I brought our cat in this past Labor Day, as he had grown terribly ill over the weekend. He wasn't moving, wasn't eating and hadn't gone to the bathroom in 3 days. The emergency clinic had us take an xray of his stomach, and then urged us to get him blood tests. When the xray came back, there was clearly something on the xray, but the doctors believed it was merely "incidental", and it was nothing to worry about. We passed on the blood tests and took him home, as he "should start improving" with the drug we were given to soothe his upset stomach. I later took him back a day later as he was not improving. He didn't even see the vet. Rather, he was given an enema and sent on his way. We thought this might help him, but unfortunately it did not. Needless to say I took him to his real vet on Tuesday, who took one look at the xray the emergency hospital had taken and saw an obstruction in his stomach. The "incidental" finding was not "incidental" at all. He needed emergency surgery, but by that time (4 days since the start of his sickness) he had a bad fever and the vet believed his organs were failing. Our vet believed at this point he had a slim chance for survival.
We made the very difficult decision of putting him down given his low chance for survival and the estimated cost of the surgery. Had the Brentwood emergency vet recognized his suffering from the start, and taken the time to really have read the Xrays, he may have been spared a few extra days of suffering, or at the very least been a strong candidate for the emergency surgery he really needed. He was completely motionless and was vomiting bile. And yet, no one seemed to consider his case an 'emergency'.
While we mourn the loss of our cat, I encourage others to look for other emergency services, if possible. I truly believe this facility only cared about getting our money, rather than truly administrating care to my dying pet. Read Less