Blue Ravine Animal Hospital, Inc.

Review: I took my great Dane to the vet to be examined for a fox-tail. Due to the vets negligence she gave my dog a potentially fatal drug to her breed.

On Wednesday 5/15/2013 I took my great Dane to the veterinarian to examine her for a possible fox-tail up her nose. After being there for about 30 minutes I signed some paperwork and was told by the doctor that she would need to be sedated for the procedure. I approved and then about 30 minutes later the doctor came back and told me that she checked in her ears and up her nose and did not find anything, so she thought it may be a infection. After that she told me it will be about 30 minutes until she wakes up, I said "okay" and waited patiently for her to return. she came back over to me about 45 minutes later and said that she had administered a drug to bring her out of the sedative state and then she informed me that she could not get my dog to respond or to come out of the sedative state. She said that she would need to contact the distributor of the drug she used on the dog in order to see if she could give the dog a second dose of the drug to make her come out of it. After 20 minutes she came back and said that she can't give the dog a second dose and that the drug she did administer sometimes can have this effect on "certain large breeds". I immediately began to worry for my dogs safety and life. I told the vet that I was going to have to leave soon because I had a final to take at school. She said that's fine she may not be able to leave here for another 2 to 4 hours. Before I left I asked the vet twice the same question "Is my dog going to be okay" she kept saying she should be fine, but I can't make any promises. In my head I immediately started to feel concerned. At that point I explained to the veterinarian that I needed to see my dog before I left otherwise I would have a lot of anxiety worrying about her before my test. At first she refused and said that I wasn't allowed in the surgery room. Then due to the circumstances I had to disclose to her that my dog was my service dog and that I had to see her. She said she was going to have to ask for permission for me to go back there, so she did and returned five minutes later and told me to follow her to the surgery room. As we entered the surgery room, There was many people surrounding my dog. I almost began to cry when I witnessed my dog on the floor of the surgery room wrapped in towels in order to keep her body temperature up. I knelt down beside her trying to communicate with her. She looked and felt dead. It took me about a minute to finally get a response out of her, she attempted to communicate by whining but no sound came out. After that I began to use a playful tone I use with her she started to wag her tail, but nothing else moved. Everyone around her was saying that was the most response they had gotten out of her since she had been sedated. Unfortunately I had to leave to go to school so as I walked out in tears in my mind all I had was a image of my loving dog trying to fight for her life. I called my boyfriend on my way to school and explained the situation he said he would pick her up while I was at school. When he picked her up he asked to remove the charge for the antisedan injection (one of the medications, that wasn't appropriate for her breed) , the receptionist said she would ask the doctor about the charge. When she returned to the front she said, we would have to pay for it because they had someone stay with her all day and that would be considered a hospitalization charge that she said they weren't even going to charge us for. Even though they were the ones responsible for putting her in that horrible state in the first place. All because they were not familiar with the drug they administered her. All we wanted was our dog back and out of their hands, so we payed the bill and left. We feel that this potentially fatal mistake could have been made on any dog and for that reason we are writing you today concerned because we almost lost our 1 year old family member due to a veterinarians negligent mistake.Desired Settlement: I would like a sincere apology from the company as well as a full refund for what took place on weds. 5/15/2013.

Business

Response:

Business' Initial Response

This letter is being written in response to the above complaint. We always strive to provide the best possible care for both our patients and their owners, and we are truly sorry that this owner did not have a good experience during her recent visit. There are several points in her letter, however, that require clarification. At this visit, the owner declined an offered appointment with a veterinarian and instead requested to drop her patient off for sedation to have her nose scoped for a possible foreign object. The veterinarian contacted the owner shortly after the patient was dropped off to explain that a foreign object was not the most likely cause of this patient's symptoms. However, the owner still requested we proceed with sedation.

This patient was a young, apparently healthy dog with no know previous adverse reactions to medications.. The patient received a sedative that is commonly used and has a wide safety margin. The veterinarian using this medication has a long and comfortable history with its use and had never before experienced an adverse effect with it's use. Upon sedation, a foreign object was not found in the patient's nose, but plant matter (a "foxtail") was found in one of the patient's ears and was removed. After the procedure, the patient was given a reversal medication, which usually causes a rapid (30-60 minutes) recovery from sedation, but did not respond in a typical fashion to the reversal agent. That is to say she did not immediately wake up from the sedation. She remained very stable but sedate. This is extremely unusual. We immediately contacted the drug manufacturer. They reported no known increased risk in this breed of dog. They confirmed that the patient was not in immediate danger and was expected to have a full but prolonged (2-3 hour) recovery. The owner was informed immediately about the unexpected response as well as the contact with the drug company.

The owner requested to visit her dog while sedated. Her patient was being treated in an area of the hospital where surgeries on other patients were being performed. After a few minute wait for other surgeries to conclude, the owner was escorted back to visit with her dog. The owner was very concerned after seeing her dog sedated. While the owner in this case is not used to seeing sedated animals, throughout her sedation this pet appeared entirely normal for a sedated dog.

During this incident, the owner was informed a full recovery was expected, and we did not feel her pet was at any immediate risk. The owner asked several times for a guarantee that her dog was going to be fine. The owner has expressed since that her main concern in this case stemmed from a lack of a guarantee for a full recovery. We did everything possible to allay her concerns, as we fully understood how scared she was for her family pet. However, it was explained that because her pet was experiencing an unusual reaction to her sedation, we were remaining cautious, as any patient not responding as expected to a medication is of concern.

As expected, the patient recovered fully with no adverse effects within a few hours. Her vital signs were carefully monitored throughout her recovery. At no time did she show any signs of danger or any physical state unexpected in a sedated dog. Shortly after her discharge from the hospital, the owner was called for follow up but did not return the call. Also, the owner has since been contacted with a sincere apology for her negative experience. We have confirmed her pet recovered fully from her sedation and is doing well. We attempted to clarify the above points and asked the owner whether there was anything we could do to help allay her concerns. During this conversation, the owner had no further requests.

Consumer's Final Response

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

As the owner of the dog I don't feel that I should have to pay for their mistakes, the situation was handled very unprofessionally and I will not compromise on a partial refund. A full refund is the least they can do after what they put me and my dog through that day.

Business' Final Response

Blue Ravine Animal Hospital is an honest, hardworking business. We employ compassionate veterinarians who are very concerned when animals do not respond to medications as expected. We will always respond with vigilance if a pet in our care is having trouble or is acting in an unexpected manner until the animal returns to normal. It would be poor service and poor medical practice to not be proactive with our patients when we have concerns. You would want that level of attention paid to yourself if you had an adverse drug reaction. As noted above this was not a typical reaction to this medication, hence our caution.

We would like to reiterate that no harm came to this animal as a result of its sedation and a foxtail was successfully removed from her ear. As a compromise, we issued a partial refund for the cost of tranquilizer and ineffective reversal medications given to this pet. The amount was mailed on 6/20/13 to the address given to the Revdex.com.