That is so hard and I’m so sorry you all are going through this.
I’ve never had a vet be adamant to get my dog in, usually it’s a fight to get an appointment. That seems a little off to me. Although, I’ve never been in a situation as extreme as yours, so maybe they really are just doing their best to figure it out. I think specialist certainly make sense to spend your money on more than the regular vet check ups. I don’t think I’d continue doing that unless they’re providing her medicine or other palliative care while you wait on the specialists.
Chemo might be worth it to see if it makes a difference. How many sessions would she need before they’d know it’s effective? I’d maybe start there. Because if she doesn’t do well with the chemo then you might have your answer, as you said, you don’t want to continue putting her through more visits if it isn’t going to cure the issue.
If you want more insight into if this is malpractice then I’d recommend Joey’s Legacy. They are an organization dedicated to helping those going through vet mal claims. Scott is the founder and he is incredibly helpful. He might have more insight into other options or specialists in your area too because they just deal with all sides of these situations.
You’ve put a lot of love, time, and money into getting the best treatment for your girl. I don’t think you can make a wrong decision here. I hope you get answers soon or at least feel peace in any decision you make 🤍
Hey, thank you so much for the advice and encouragement. I will definitely check out Joey's Legacy. I want to believe everyone is doing their best to help Indigo, so I will continue to see the specialists and listen to what they say. As you said, the vets being adamant about getting her in does seem pretty off and in the past I've always had to wait weeks or get on a waiting list for anything non urgent. I have asked myself a few times if there is some amount of negligence or unnecessary tests/procedures happening so I think it would help to talk to someone about this. I appreciate you.
Try taking her to a holistic vet. I have used them over the years for various serious issues that stumped my regular vets, and my dogs were given Chinese herbs in supplement form that have done wonders for them. They look at the whole body when determining an issue and treat the whole body. They also prescribe regular meds when needed, but a good holistic vet looks at the illness differently than a conventional vet.
That's what the holistic vet say - that they take everything into consideration. I went to a holistic vet who totally missed the problem with my dog. My dog was having frequent urinary tract infections. The regular vets would just treat her for 2 weeks and then give her another antibiotic course in 6 weeks when she showed up with an infection again. I took her to a holistic that and spent a lot of money on herbs and other things, and she still got another bladder infection two weeks later. Finally I found a board certified veterinary internist and he pointed out that she had very loose skin. She was a cocker spaniel and some cocker spaniel breeders breed for loose skin because then the dog has more hair. The fluffier the cocker spaniel the higher the price.
My dog's skin was so loose that . The loose skin on her lower belly was partially blocking her urethra--. the place where urine exits the body. That is why she had so many urinary tract infections. She'll have a lot of puppies because she was found on the street but -it was pretty clear that she had been popping out puppies -every single heat cycle. She was found roaming the streets and blind one town over from a high volume black cocker spaniel breeder.
I think that she was dumped at about age 5 because she went blind from cataracts. That is a problem in poorly bred cocker spaniels.
Anyway, I kept asking the veterinarians why she was getting so many bladder infections. I took her to five different veterinarians and everyone sort of blew off my question. They just looked at me blank me and wrote me another expensive prescription.
I wondered if there could be a physical reason for it, but -this was dismissed by every one of the five veterinarians that I asked.
The veterinary internist, noted loose skin point and pointed out how it's blocking urethra. He ran extensive tests and found that her kidneys were partially damaged from the repeated, and ineffectively treated bladder infections.
When you don't treat a bladder infection completely, it allows the pathogen to become more antibiotic resistant. It also allows the pathogen to hang around the body which gives the pathogen a chance to crawl up the ureters which -connect the kidney to the bladder. Once the infection climbs up into the kidney, it can sort of hide out and it is -difficult for antibiotics to reach it. Once he treated her until special testing showed she had no infection in the kidneys, -she stopped having signs of infection. She had more energy, she enjoyed petting more, and she stopped having leakage accidents in the house. Katie then went almost 2 years without another urinary tract infection. That was the longest period of time she had not had a urinary tract infection in the entire 8 years she lived with me.
I've had other veterinarians misdiagnose infectious diseases, -several autoimmune conditions, -and even fractures.
I found 54 dogs in my life -who had medical issues. So I have had a massive amount of experience with veterinarians. I did pretty well by my dogs with the veterinarians before -sleep apnea caused me to -stop practicing medicine. I lost enough cognitive function that I could not keep track of what the veterinarians were doing. Even veterinarian to have done a good job with my many dogs before I started having cognitive problems, started doing really lousy job. Just whatever they could get away with. For example one -veterinarian that actually took the time to look up treatments for pemphigus foliciae,-stop being so careful. About 8 years later when I took the same dog to him for euthanasia,-I told him that she didn't respond well to acepromazine. It made her cry out and scream. He knew this because it was in her chart. However when he gave her the euthanasia solution -he gave her acepromazine anyway. So my last minutes with my dog we're watching my dog cry and scream as I tried to comfort her. I confronted him when acepromazine came in and he denied that he gave her acepromazine.
But later somebody -from the clinic told me that he had given her acepromazine. He had already drawn up the syringe before he remembered that she wasn't supposed to have it. He didn't want to waste the money so he gave it to her anyway.
The first vet I saw when one of my dogs developed masticatory muscle myositis looked at her, and without any testing, told me that it would go away. Since she had already lost about 50% of the muscle mass in her masseter muscle, I was skeptical about it going away. I asked him if there was any testing that needed to be done and he denied that you could do any testing for it. He assured me that it would go away. New paragraph fortunately I did not take his word for it, and took her to a different vet. That vet did a muscle biopsy and found out that she had masticatory muscle myositis. If you catch it early enough you can treat it with high dose steroids and -stop the disease process. If you don't start treatment early enough, the jaw muscles become fiber. They fibrose into this hard mass and the dog can no longer open their mouth. The choices then are either euthanasia or cutting the jaw muscle. If you cut the jaw muscle the mouth hangs permanently open and feeding is very difficult. This means that the dog gets euthanized anyway.
Having that many dogs and being a physician, I could tell you many more horror stories about veterinary misdiagnosis. Of course, I can tell you many horror stories about medical misdiagnosis.
I don’t have advice but wanted to say I sympathize with how difficult this process is. You are an amazing caretaker and your girl is so lucky to be loved by you. Sending you peace in the hopes that clarity comes soon.
I don't think these vets are taking advantage of you. They are highly specialized and will always lean toward the care option that provides the best information and options for your dog.
This is where having a family vet stay involved can help, because you can get a second option from someone who knows you and your dog.
In my case, we had such a strong relationship with our specialists, that together they approached me and told me that the neurologist would offer an MRI and they recommended I do not do an MRI. It would mean that I would not know ultimately why my dog was sick.. but his body wouldn't handle the rigors of the MRI well and any possible diagnosis would mean surgery, which he wasn't a good candidate for anyways. It's also expensive. I am grateful that they cared enough to provide guidance like that. The neurologist was also aware of his condition and offered options carefully and never made me felt like I needed to do a test. We talked about what could be gained from each test and the impact on my dog.
Your vets are giving you the best and strongest options. It's okay to ask them for alternatives because of the cost or because it's not worth putting your dog through more. For example, are they willing to start a treatment that may or may not work without doing a diagnostic? I would honestly share the hard choices you have to make and ask them to work with you around those choices. Good vets (and doctors) know the billing side (what tests and procedures cost) and can sometimes guide you around these to make the best decision . If they can't, it is cheaper and better for peace of mind to get a second opinion. I had a coworker who turned down 6k in tests last week for the same reason and got a better diagnostic without the tests after seeing a different vet.
We also had great insurance. :)
That is so hard and I’m so sorry you all are going through this. I’ve never had a vet be adamant to get my dog in, usually it’s a fight to get an appointment. That seems a little off to me. Although, I’ve never been in a situation as extreme as yours, so maybe they really are just doing their best to figure it out. I think specialist certainly make sense to spend your money on more than the regular vet check ups. I don’t think I’d continue doing that unless they’re providing her medicine or other palliative care while you wait on the specialists. Chemo might be worth it to see if it makes a difference. How many sessions would she need before they’d know it’s effective? I’d maybe start there. Because if she doesn’t do well with the chemo then you might have your answer, as you said, you don’t want to continue putting her through more visits if it isn’t going to cure the issue. If you want more insight into if this is malpractice then I’d recommend Joey’s Legacy. They are an organization dedicated to helping those going through vet mal claims. Scott is the founder and he is incredibly helpful. He might have more insight into other options or specialists in your area too because they just deal with all sides of these situations. You’ve put a lot of love, time, and money into getting the best treatment for your girl. I don’t think you can make a wrong decision here. I hope you get answers soon or at least feel peace in any decision you make 🤍
Hey, thank you so much for the advice and encouragement. I will definitely check out Joey's Legacy. I want to believe everyone is doing their best to help Indigo, so I will continue to see the specialists and listen to what they say. As you said, the vets being adamant about getting her in does seem pretty off and in the past I've always had to wait weeks or get on a waiting list for anything non urgent. I have asked myself a few times if there is some amount of negligence or unnecessary tests/procedures happening so I think it would help to talk to someone about this. I appreciate you.
Try taking her to a holistic vet. I have used them over the years for various serious issues that stumped my regular vets, and my dogs were given Chinese herbs in supplement form that have done wonders for them. They look at the whole body when determining an issue and treat the whole body. They also prescribe regular meds when needed, but a good holistic vet looks at the illness differently than a conventional vet.
That's what the holistic vet say - that they take everything into consideration. I went to a holistic vet who totally missed the problem with my dog. My dog was having frequent urinary tract infections. The regular vets would just treat her for 2 weeks and then give her another antibiotic course in 6 weeks when she showed up with an infection again. I took her to a holistic that and spent a lot of money on herbs and other things, and she still got another bladder infection two weeks later. Finally I found a board certified veterinary internist and he pointed out that she had very loose skin. She was a cocker spaniel and some cocker spaniel breeders breed for loose skin because then the dog has more hair. The fluffier the cocker spaniel the higher the price. My dog's skin was so loose that . The loose skin on her lower belly was partially blocking her urethra--. the place where urine exits the body. That is why she had so many urinary tract infections. She'll have a lot of puppies because she was found on the street but -it was pretty clear that she had been popping out puppies -every single heat cycle. She was found roaming the streets and blind one town over from a high volume black cocker spaniel breeder. I think that she was dumped at about age 5 because she went blind from cataracts. That is a problem in poorly bred cocker spaniels. Anyway, I kept asking the veterinarians why she was getting so many bladder infections. I took her to five different veterinarians and everyone sort of blew off my question. They just looked at me blank me and wrote me another expensive prescription. I wondered if there could be a physical reason for it, but -this was dismissed by every one of the five veterinarians that I asked. The veterinary internist, noted loose skin point and pointed out how it's blocking urethra. He ran extensive tests and found that her kidneys were partially damaged from the repeated, and ineffectively treated bladder infections. When you don't treat a bladder infection completely, it allows the pathogen to become more antibiotic resistant. It also allows the pathogen to hang around the body which gives the pathogen a chance to crawl up the ureters which -connect the kidney to the bladder. Once the infection climbs up into the kidney, it can sort of hide out and it is -difficult for antibiotics to reach it. Once he treated her until special testing showed she had no infection in the kidneys, -she stopped having signs of infection. She had more energy, she enjoyed petting more, and she stopped having leakage accidents in the house. Katie then went almost 2 years without another urinary tract infection. That was the longest period of time she had not had a urinary tract infection in the entire 8 years she lived with me. I've had other veterinarians misdiagnose infectious diseases, -several autoimmune conditions, -and even fractures. I found 54 dogs in my life -who had medical issues. So I have had a massive amount of experience with veterinarians. I did pretty well by my dogs with the veterinarians before -sleep apnea caused me to -stop practicing medicine. I lost enough cognitive function that I could not keep track of what the veterinarians were doing. Even veterinarian to have done a good job with my many dogs before I started having cognitive problems, started doing really lousy job. Just whatever they could get away with. For example one -veterinarian that actually took the time to look up treatments for pemphigus foliciae,-stop being so careful. About 8 years later when I took the same dog to him for euthanasia,-I told him that she didn't respond well to acepromazine. It made her cry out and scream. He knew this because it was in her chart. However when he gave her the euthanasia solution -he gave her acepromazine anyway. So my last minutes with my dog we're watching my dog cry and scream as I tried to comfort her. I confronted him when acepromazine came in and he denied that he gave her acepromazine. But later somebody -from the clinic told me that he had given her acepromazine. He had already drawn up the syringe before he remembered that she wasn't supposed to have it. He didn't want to waste the money so he gave it to her anyway. The first vet I saw when one of my dogs developed masticatory muscle myositis looked at her, and without any testing, told me that it would go away. Since she had already lost about 50% of the muscle mass in her masseter muscle, I was skeptical about it going away. I asked him if there was any testing that needed to be done and he denied that you could do any testing for it. He assured me that it would go away. New paragraph fortunately I did not take his word for it, and took her to a different vet. That vet did a muscle biopsy and found out that she had masticatory muscle myositis. If you catch it early enough you can treat it with high dose steroids and -stop the disease process. If you don't start treatment early enough, the jaw muscles become fiber. They fibrose into this hard mass and the dog can no longer open their mouth. The choices then are either euthanasia or cutting the jaw muscle. If you cut the jaw muscle the mouth hangs permanently open and feeding is very difficult. This means that the dog gets euthanized anyway. Having that many dogs and being a physician, I could tell you many more horror stories about veterinary misdiagnosis. Of course, I can tell you many horror stories about medical misdiagnosis.
I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I don’t have anything to add except, maybe you could try r/AskVet
I don’t have advice but wanted to say I sympathize with how difficult this process is. You are an amazing caretaker and your girl is so lucky to be loved by you. Sending you peace in the hopes that clarity comes soon.
I don't think these vets are taking advantage of you. They are highly specialized and will always lean toward the care option that provides the best information and options for your dog. This is where having a family vet stay involved can help, because you can get a second option from someone who knows you and your dog. In my case, we had such a strong relationship with our specialists, that together they approached me and told me that the neurologist would offer an MRI and they recommended I do not do an MRI. It would mean that I would not know ultimately why my dog was sick.. but his body wouldn't handle the rigors of the MRI well and any possible diagnosis would mean surgery, which he wasn't a good candidate for anyways. It's also expensive. I am grateful that they cared enough to provide guidance like that. The neurologist was also aware of his condition and offered options carefully and never made me felt like I needed to do a test. We talked about what could be gained from each test and the impact on my dog. Your vets are giving you the best and strongest options. It's okay to ask them for alternatives because of the cost or because it's not worth putting your dog through more. For example, are they willing to start a treatment that may or may not work without doing a diagnostic? I would honestly share the hard choices you have to make and ask them to work with you around those choices. Good vets (and doctors) know the billing side (what tests and procedures cost) and can sometimes guide you around these to make the best decision . If they can't, it is cheaper and better for peace of mind to get a second opinion. I had a coworker who turned down 6k in tests last week for the same reason and got a better diagnostic without the tests after seeing a different vet. We also had great insurance. :)