Dr. Malcolm Macartney of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, asked a woman to leave her ailing dog for "overnight supervision" even though there would be no one at the clinic during that time to "supervise".
The vet knew the dog, Nip, was epileptic. The dog suffered a major seizure that night that left him paralized.
The vet also failed to mention to the dog's owner that the animal had a malignant growth, which was left untreated. This caused the dog's demise three months later.
Nip was an active, nine-year-old Australian cattle dog. Dehalt said he was walking fine and playing the day she brought him to Macartney’s clinic, MacKenzie Veterinary Services, in April 2009, for digestive problems.
What the vet told Nip's owner
Nip's owner, Annette Dehalt said Dr. Macartney told her Nip needed to be kept overnight for "observation" after exploratory surgery. She said the vet knew her dog was epileptic and prone to debilitating seizures.
“I wanted to take him home,” said Dehalt. “I remember pretty much verbatim what Dr Macartney said.
He said ‘No — we should really keep him here in the clinic for overnight observation.’”
She said she presumed that meant someone would be there. “I wanted to take him home … but at the same time I realized, OK, if that’s necessary, if he needs veterinary supervision ... especially with his seizure record.”
Instead, the dog was left alone for 9½ hours, from when the vet last checked on him at 10 p.m. until morning staff arrived and found him having a full-blown seizure.
If Dehalt had been caring for Nip at home when he had his seizure, she would have been able to respond immediately by giving him medication and rushing him to an emergency clinic. “What is the point of leaving him at the vet clinic without anybody there?” Dehalt asked.
“I was sleeping … while he was thrashing against the metal bars of that cage after surgery — alone in an empty vet clinic — paralyzing himself,” Dehalt said.
The next morning
“Whatever person opened up the vet clinic in the morning found him thrashing in his cage,” said Annette Dehalt, who was shocked when she arrived later to pick up her pet. “He couldn’t even right himself. He tried desperately to lift his head to greet me and he was kind of drooling.”
She said she had to carry him out to the car the next day — because he couldn’t walk — after she paid Macartney’s $2,128 bill for the exploratory surgery.
The bill included charges for "hospitalization" and "in-patient evaluation.'
Nip died three months later, from an untreated cancer growth, which Macartney had failed to inform Dehalt about.
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