I’m sorry if this isn’t the right place to post or too long. (TL;DR & location at the bottom.) This cat was my baby for the past decade. My shadow who followed me everywhere…. Maybe it’s the grief talking, but.. thank you for reading and any advice you may have regardless.
My cat was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism last month, and the vet who diagnosed her recommended a med to treat her. I asked, “What are the side effects?” They tell us to our face “Oh usually none. You don’t have to worry about that.”
Yet fast forward a week. She’s throwing up constantly, she’s losing her hair. Trusting our gut we take her off this med, but she only gets worse. Fatigue, painful irritation on her legs & belly making her unable to move, hiding constantly, she’s hot to the touch.
After rushing her to 3 different vets within the same company, they all completely brush us off. Told us it was a “rare but documented” reaction to the drug, that we did the right thing by taking her off it, and to just leave her alone to get better with time. As she’s fading from our eyes it’s then “oh hair loss and hot flashes yeah that’s common for hyperthyroidism, just leave her be.”
We were the ones who had to say fuck that and get her aquaphore, something, anything to help her. And then we find this specialist who’s specialized in treating hyperthyroidism for decades, and he confirms to us it’s not just the hyperthyroidism, like they claimed. She had an allergic reaction induced case of severe cellulitis, a rare but documented severe side effect of that medicine, the severest case he had seen in his career. And he also confirms that had we followed the other vets advice and done nothing, she would’ve been gravely ill if not worse by the time we saw him.
Instead? She was on the mend thanks to the aquaphore, the steroid shot he gave her and some antibiotics. He felt confident in having her undergo I-31 radiation therapy treatment for the hyprthyroidism, and would be treating her cellulitis himself in the pet hospital throughout her procedure. Gave us updates everyday, and everyday seemed better than the last. She was taking well to the radiation. We finally felt confident she would be okay….
But then on the third day of treatment he called earlier than normal, the med induced infection had progressed too much under the surface. She’s….. gone…
My baby is gone… I don’t have anyone who will claw their way into my room when I’m crying anymore. No one who will meow at me for food every morning, do dances for turkey or have full on meow convos with me on end. No one who will cuddle with me in bed, put a smile on my face everyday, or jingle jangle with her collar down our halls.
Please. Just tell me there’s something that can be done, so when someone else’s fluffy baby comes down the line, they might actually warn them like they were supposed to with mine…
TL;DR : Vets prescribed medication that wound up killing my cat, all without ever warning us of it’s side effects or seriously treating the ones it caused. Is there anything we can do so this doesn’t happen again to someone else’s cat down the line?
Location: Minnesota
Comments
NAL Firstly, I’m so sorry for your loss, losing a pet is like losing a family member.
You’re not going to like the answer to this, but unfortunately, there is very little you can do here. In the United States, animals are considered property, so if you attempted to sue, you would only be entitled to the assessed value of the animal. For a 10 year old cat, it’d be unlikely that you could recover the court costs. The best thing you can do is take time to mourn.
I’m sorry for your loss. But this isn’t about the vets, it’s about a rare and very severe reaction to what sounds like appropriate medication to an issue.
I know you’re feeling rage and want justice, but if you went to a vet and heard your cat was sick. There’s a 1 in a 5 billion chance the cat would die, would you say no?
Legally pets are property. Malpractice by a vet and malpractice by a physician result in damages that are much different. I understand the value of a loyal pet but the damages you’d likely be looking at are the replacement cost.
Additionally your vet likely did nothing that would be considered malpractice. He doesn’t have a duty to warn you of every possible outcome.
Also I think it’s understandable to be angry at the vet. But, if he told you there was a 1 in 100,000 chance for this to happen or that it was an ultra rare yet possible side affect would you have still done the treatment? I think we both know the answer is yes.
I won’t tell you not to be angry. It’s obviously a part of grief but talking about pursuing a lawsuit or any legal action will likely be a waste of your energy and time that will end in disappointment.
A better way to spend your time might be therapy.
I’m very sorry for your loss💔… I lost my cat to a negligent vet and had to accept the fact that there is nothing that can be done.
Sorry for your loss, but if the vet gave appropriate treatment and didn’t commit gross negligence and/or deliberately violated established practices, there’s not much you can do. You say you don’t want it to happen to someone else but there’s no lawsuit in the world that can ban side-effects from a medicine. The unfortunate truth is, sometimes treatments don’t work, and the legal system can’t do anything about it.
The vet didn’t ‘kill’ your cat.
You can report this as an adverse drug event to the FDA and the company that produces the drug so it’ll be noted and added to the list of statistics. If enough people experience similar side effects with their pets, doctors will be more likely to inform patients in the future. That’s about all you can do, though. I’m very sorry for your loss
This link explains how to do that if you’re interested: https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/report-problem/how-report-animal-drug-and-device-side-effects-and-product-problems