Three times I have asked in writing for an account of what happened in the 2 and a half hours Murphy was at the vet clinic with approximate times. Since there were no contemporaneous notes made it would have to be estimates. Each time I have been given a sort of curated summary. In the last one the time taken to achieve his scan was apparently 15 minutes. This differs from the previous one which stated that because he could not tolerate being scanned lying down, the attempts at scanning him standing were more awkward and took longer than a scan normally takes. When I pointed out that the 2 accounts barely matched I was in effect told that the conversation was over.
I had thought I wanted to meet the vet herself and ask her directly. This was encouraged in theory. Then the senior vets in discussion decided that a telephone conversation would be better. I realised I wanted to look into her eyes when I asked her to describe the events. I declined the phone conversation as pointless.
I watched a You tube video of an echo being done on a dog. I can absolutely guarantee that Murphy would have been effectively choked in that position…..bit by the humans, but by his floppy trachea….which I described to the first vet who discovered his murmur. She didn’t think it sufficiently important to pass this information on. Anyway having choked he’d have struggled to stand up and cough. Wouldn’t you? I’m guessing nobody appreciated quite what his struggling was about. When he was allowed to stand up it apparently took him a little while to recover. After that he was stressed every time the vet appoached him with the probe. She tried to get the scan image but when he became blue she gave him “little rests” and then started again.
A significant part of my job as an anaesthetist was allaying fear, minimising distress and avoiding hypoxia….because being blue means you are hypoxic. Apparently vets have a different reality. She wrote me a paragraph explaining why this was fine.
“It is not unusual for animals to be stressed when coming into the practice. In some cases animals can become cyanotic when handling. If a patient improves with a break and rest it is not unusual to make a decision to continue with an examination. Murphy improved initially so his signs were initially interpreted as relating to stress rather than an acute life threatening disease and this is why you were not contacted sooner. “
Good to know when you leave your pet at a clinic…..cyanosis is part of the territory…… If animals could talk and tell tales like humans then cyanosis might be less common and distress might be taken more seriously. You still can’t protect yourself from stupid though.
Is it any wonder I’m struggling to get over this?
