Jewels' Recovery

[aware]

Jewels is a rescue that we picked up from Dayton Veterinary Clinic on 10/4/08, She had entropion surgery and was spayed on 3/13/08. I found a sack of fluid in her spay incision yesterday. She went to the Vet earlier today....

Jewels has had a very bad spay. She is now going to need corrective surgery; she has an infection and a fever (104). The bill is going to be $775. We are so upset. The Vet’s office in Dayton told us that she was healthy and ready to go. Our Vet said he would be embarrassed if one of his spay surgeries ever looked like hers does.

We are not sure how we are going to scrape up the money. Her adoption fee plus the gas (to pick her up - 5 hour drive) and now this Vet bill, adds up to over $1000.

The nerve of the Vet Clinic in Dayton… Her vet bills there were almost $800! And they wanted to Kick her out!

I needed to vent.. And ask if anyone has had any experience with a bad vet? We are going to be calling them and asking for the Rescues money back for the spay, but we have been told that they probably won't care at all. We just don't know how to go about this. Any advice?

[Judy Fox]

Oh dear, I am so sorry and I hope she will be better soon. Poor little love, as if she has not gone through enough already.

[KathrynH]

There should be some kind of place like The Better Business Bureau or someone that regulates that that you can complain to, that's completely wrong, I'm so sorry you have to deal with this!

[Jeff&Peks]

If the new vet is serious and he actually has to repair the last vets surgery if the new vet will verify it there's no reason you couldn't go after the old vet. Its real rare that one vet would say anything about another vet no matter how bad or wrong the vet is, (a code of ethics thing) if your new vet is saying the surgery is bad and telling you the vet screwed up it has to be real bad.

[Mia]

Poor Jewels - all she has gone through. I am appalled that a vet would mess up like that.

[CoraP.]

I am so sorry about Jewels. I hope she will soon be better. If worse comes to worse, maybe we could all chip in and try to help with the bills.

[pfordeb]

First, yes get your vet to talk to the Dayton vet, then you can report that first vet to the Ohio Veterinary Association.

Second, yes, we could chip in to help. Do you have a paypal site or is there a way we can contribute through cc.org, someone?

Third, poor baby. What a mess. I hope everything gets straightened out.

[sdasilva27]

I know EXACTLY how you feel. The same thing happened to me with McKenzie. We drove 4 hours each way to get her and I specifically asked them about her health. They told me she had no signs of entropian, hip dysplasia, or heartworm or anything else.

When I got there she was all of a sudden a light positive for heartworm but they told me that just being on preventative, she should be fine within 6 months. I took her to our current vet and he agreed.

Then I noticed her gooey eye and she was always rubbing it with her paws. So we tried eye drops, they didn't help at all. I was playing with her one day and just so happened to be at the perfect angle to see entropian on her right eye.

She's going Thursday for surgery at an estimate of $579-600 (I think, I'm going by memory). I already spent $165 the week before for antibiotics, eye drops, heartworm test to confirm, etc. So we're at about $1000 too....well minus the $25 that someone awesome on here donated (I know who you are, I just didn't want to exploit you). I'm probably going to have to tap into the savings and start a payment plan with the vet but oh well. McKenzie's eye is just getting more red every day. So, I wish I could help but I'm in need right now too. I wish her luck during surgery!

PS: I called the shelter that we got her from and told her and they were just like oh well our vet didn't say anything so how were we supposed to know? I responded with "well when someone explicitly asks you, it'd be much better to say I don't know than say she definitely doesn't have any of those, she's very healthy." They just gave me the well we have too many dogs act. As far as I know, there's no way to put fault on anyone and frankly, even if they paid for it, I'm not sure it'd be worth the emotional aspect of it. Not only for me, but for McKenzie. She's been traumatized enough, we decided we'll just have a smaller christmas or something this year and the investment for her health is worth it. Ask your vet if there's any way he can help you out on the price at all knowing the circumstances or an interest free payment plan. My vet took $100 off McKenzie's surgery because he knows that we were royally lied to by the shelter. It was better than nothing....

[fillyok]

I can't believe she's been living with this problem for so long...she was spayed in March??? She's lucky she didn't die. I'm sorry this has happened to you and Jewels...hopefully we can help in some way. Maybe you can set up the donation page like Larry did for Kali. You might not get the entire amount you need, but we can help you make a big dent in the payment.
http://www.fundable.com/groupactions/gr ... 1808116511

[IliamnasQuest]

I'm really curious as to what a "bad spay" is. Could you explain to us what your vet told you about the problem with Jewel and why he thinks it's because of a spay done seven months earlier?

I've assisted with thousands of spays and what you're describing doesn't make sense to me (not blaming you, just wondering what your vet is telling you). For this to happen in October when her spay was in March just seems odd - is the vet absolutely certain it has to do with the previous spay, or could it be an injury that just happened to end up on the incision site? And are there internal problems? If so, how did he diagnose those?

It just sounds like a lot of money for something described as a "bad spay" from seven months earlier. Call me suspicious, but I'd question things a bit more or even get another opinion from another vet. I certainly hope she is on antibiotics at this point to help clear up the infection and the resulting fever.

Melanie and the gang in Alaska

[aware]

IliamnasQuest,
Yesterday's info was through the 'Husband Filter." So sorry if it was vague.

We both sat down with our Vet last night with all of Jewels' info and her surgery all done. Our Vet is very suspicious of the paperwork (dates) and procedures done while Jewels was at the Dayton (Washington) Clinic. After all they had a total of 33 Chows. Her spay was recorded to be on 3-13-08, and they also said that she is 18 months old. Our Vet says that she has to be younger than 18 months and that her surgery could have been done too early. Her incision was very small, poorly done and had to be removed. We have asked for our Vet to put this all in writing for us so that we understand everything.

Along with the "bad spay" she also had a herniated umbilical cord and an infection. We just don't know how she was at a Vet office and they did not notice that she had a huge hernia?? I found it the first time she let me pet her!! They should have examined her before they told me the she was perfectly healthy or before they let her leave the clinic.

We started a 'Fundable' page:
http://www.fundable.com/groupactions/gr ... 7893669890

Thanks for the idea. I know everyone is experiencing tough times and appreciate anyone who wants to donate. It was very unexpected to hear that people would like to donate. I have never belonged to a forum before and its nice to know that there ARE some great people out there. If anyone does decide to donate, when we are able to we will "pay it forward."

[pfordeb]

I pledged $20.

[Judy Fox]

I pledged too.

[chow fancier]

Me too!

[aware]

You guys are so wonderful . I have lowered the amount to $575 needed. We were able to get together $200 so far.

Jewels is doing better.. She has much more energy now, showing us how sick she really was. I took a few pictures yesterday of her little shaven leg (from her IV) and it looks like a little chicken drumstick! I will post them soon!

[KathrynH]

Just wondering about what happens if you don't reach your goal, will you lower it so the pledges go through? I just want to make sure you actually get the money.

[aware]

We will be watching it carefully. We must hit $100 (the lowest the site will accept) in order to receive any of the donations. We will lower the total as needed or as we are able to pay off the bill ourselves.

[KathrynH]

Awesome! I just wanted to make sure

[Princess]

ummm... i pledged something.. i just don't know what... I think i'm becoming challenged from lack of sleep...

[aware]

Jewels says "Thank you so much!" to everyone!

She has much more pep in her step now...


Her little leg is so bare





We actually herd her bark! She was trying to get Rocco to play.

I wanted to add, for those who have donated or for anyone on this site, I am a Graphic Designer and can help with any design needs. I work at a pretty big outdoor company doing various production tasks. I have done a few pro bono projects and am willing to help with anything pretty-much (not exactly a web guru yet). Just PM me.

[CoraP.]

Oh, Jewels is so cute! I can see why you want to hug and pet her a lot! I'm glad she feels better.

[Abbiegirl]

Jewels is gorgeous!!!

[aware]

Thank you Abbiegirl.

She is in need of a Groom, we are probably going to go ahead and have her professionally groomed when she gets her sutures out so look forward to seeing an even more beautiful Jewels soon...

[aware]

UPDATE...
Thank you to those who have donated to help us with Jewels' bill! Upon reading more into fundable.com you are only allowed to adjust your goal for 5 days and our 5 days are just about up (by the end of today). I wanted to make sure that your wonderful donations did not go to waste so I lowered our goal to $100. I will leave the page up for the total 26 days if anyone else is compelled to help.

You are great people!

Jewels is doing great. She gets her sutures out in 10 days!

[fillyok]

How's Jewels doing?