Disagreements

Re: Disagreements

Fiona Leathers — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:51:15 GMT

It really does go back to the old saying - "Its not what you know, it who you know!!"

Re: Disagreements

Saskia Quinn — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:06:38 GMT

thats absolutely disgraceful and negligent

Re: Disagreements

Louise B — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:17:19 GMT

[quote user="Caro Laithwaite"]And it is typical but disgraceful that said person is politically active[/quote]

Very typical! Before starting nursing I worked at a breeder and championship judge (inc. Crufts) who also had a boarding kennels and puppy factory. At the time she churned out Border Collies, Labs, Patterdales and Westies as well as her 'favoured breed' (which I won't mention as this would identify her and leave me open to litigation). Her border collies were so unsocialised that if somebody wanted to meet the parents you had to pick them up and carry them from the kennel to the reception as the dogs were too scared to walk (they never left the kennel/run otherwise). She referred to her westies as her westie factory and she proudly told all prospective owners that of course her border collies were hip scored (what she never told them was that her prize stud dog was hip-scored 60). Yet this woman is revered in show circles and gets favourable write-ups in popular dog magazines. She booked out all her kennels over the summer and left her collies out in the yard with no shelter in the middle of a fullblown storm (two of them were seniors, one with cancer), cooked her ferret to death after leaving it in a metal cat carrier one top of a hutch in the midday august sun - for 6 hrs, dished out acp to the boarders without the owners' knowledge and reserved an electric shock collar for persistent boarding barkers. The woman was crazy. The day princess Di died she downed tools and left all the animals uncared for/unfed/etc so that she could spend the day grieving.

Re: Disagreements

Caro Laithwaite VN — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:00:52 GMT

Places like that do not change. And it is typical but disgraceful that said person is politically active. I would have filled his mate in on things.

Re: Disagreements

Saskia Quinn — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:19:23 GMT

lets hope for the better then!

Re: Disagreements

Louise B — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:18:01 GMT

Yeah - bear in mind though that Sal & I locummed there between 12 & 8 years ago so things *may* have changed.

Re: Disagreements

Saskia Quinn — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:12:38 GMT

disgraceful place then, you are better out of it though I can't help feeling concerned about the animals that do go there

Re: Disagreements

Louise B — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:10:27 GMT

[quote user="SaskiaVN"]

that practice sure sounds rough, wouldnt like my pets to go there, however, if the nurses were as nice as you two, maybe you were able to 'keep things right' so to speak or is that a very silly statement?

[/quote]

Very sweet but very silly statement. You have never met the owner/vet X was a living nightmare. When I quit I went back to the B&B to clear out my stuff and the B&B owner (who was a friend of X) wouldn't even talk to me for letting down his friend. God only knows what X said to him but I didn't attempt to fill him in.

The farce of it all was X was prominant in veterinary 'politics' when X should have been struck off for services against the veterinary profession.

Re: Disagreements

Saskia Quinn — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:03:40 GMT

Re: Disagreements

Louise B — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:45:32 GMT

[quote user="sal the 1st"]

L+s+s - you post rings quite a few bells - there cannot be two places like this can there??

I remember very clearly thio top ups with animals sometimes taking days to recover. That anaesthetic machine man was a helluva time coming!

[/quote]

LOL - from a comparison of our offline chats the anaesthetic machine man took at least 4 years to come! She should have got the bottle of ether out from under the cupboard - I just thank my lucky stars that she just kept it on standby and din't actually use it

Re: Disagreements

Nick Shackleton — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:52:53 GMT

[quote user="Kerry Haigh"]

thanks little Nicky ... woof woof

[/quote]

PMSL that film is so funny!!!!

Re: Disagreements

Louise B — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:41:12 GMT

Hi, have pm'd you!

Re: Disagreements

Sal the 1st — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:05:31 GMT

L+s+s - yes sounds awfully familiar esp the 'consent' forms and the 12 hour days, and I do recall complaining to the locum agency about this locum

Re: Disagreements

Kerry Spain — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:00:55 GMT

thanks little Nicky ... woof woof

Re: Disagreements

Nick Shackleton — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:56:31 GMT

Take care love

Re: Disagreements

Kerry Spain — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:47:44 GMT

Hi guys and thanks for all reassuring posts I'm just going to monitor her and will make the decision when the time comes.

Re: Disagreements

Louise B — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:58:03 GMT

[quote user="sal the 1st"]

L+s+s - you post rings quite a few bells - there cannot be two places like this can there??

I remember very clearly thio top ups with animals sometimes taking days to recover. That anaesthetic machine man was a helluva time coming!

[/quote]

Hmmm....

Somewhere on the east side of England and about as far from Edinburgh as from Margate and that's all I am gonna say! Except.... if it is the same practice you must remember the lack of consent forms!!!! The consent book - one ruled line containing owner name/1st line of address/animal's name/species/procedure/contact number - then sign here on the dotted line. Sign the life of your pet away with no discussion re: g/a risks, blah, blah, blah....

Does that ring any bells?

The elderly cat that came in for a dental and when I got it out of its cat basket it was severely dysnoepic with a massively ascitic abdomen and when I reported the cat's condition to the vet all the vet wanted to know was "what did the owner's sign for" "a dental" "okay, a dental is what it shall have", "but they don't surely realise the cat's problems" "they signed for a dental so we will give them a dental". One dose of dom/ket later, a bit of antesedan and we send a 1/2 dead cat home to come back 2 days later for PTS....

Does it sound even more familiar now Sal?

Its the one and only locum job in 10 years of locumming that I have walked out on. I was booked for three weeks and, on the friday of week one, I told the vet that I wouldn't be returning the following week. She told me that I was being unprofessional. I told her that I totally agreed with her that I was being unprofessional - unprofessional for not going going to the RCVS to complain and that's what would happen if I stayed.

The practice was an embarressment to the veterinary profession.

Apart from that, the way they treated their locums was a joke. I charged by the hour and worked a 7 hour day. The other locum nurse who had about 10 years more experience than me (I was a 2nd yr trainee at the time) charged by the day and worked a 12 hour day - and we both came home with the same amount of money

Re: Disagreements

Dippy — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:19:53 GMT

Kerry - I am really sorry to hear about your cat. I had a similar situation 18mths ago with my oldest cat. She had to be sedated to examine her mouth and take bloods as I'd known for a few days there was something wrong but she was way too stiff with arthritis (despite meds) and feisty to examine her myself at home. Up until then, she had been reasonably happy poddling about the house but had started to drool smelly brown saliva. I was fully expecting to find out that either her teeth were rotton or her kidneys had packed up etc but was shocked to find a large tumout under her tongue which was pushing her tongue forwards and looked very angry. The vet said that we could try steroids to give her a bit longer although surgery wasn't really an option where it was located (it was joined firmly to half of the underside of her tongue). It was a heartbreaking decision for me as I'd always had more of a special bond with her than any of my others, despite her feistiness when being handled, but I knew that iIcouldn't prolong things based on the fact she also had arthritis and that a fight would be involved if i tried to administer meds myself etc. It was especially hard as her bloods were absolutely perfect and she was 16yrs old! I made the decision not to wake her up as I just wanted her to go peacefully rather than wake her up, have a few more months and then have to put her through sedtion again prior to pts.

I went through the whole dilemma of "Did they think I was heartless for not trying more?" and "Did they think I was a rubbish owner for not knowing sooner?" etc but at the end of the day, she'd had a good life until the last year and I felt that the time was right. Only an owner knows what their pet is really like at home and what their overall quality of life on a daily basis is. People who aren't with them 24-7 can only really advise from a medical perspective and it's easy to judge from the outside. Do what's right for you and your little cat and stay strong - otherwise you'll always regret it and when the time comes, it'll be even harder to cope with your own emotions if you feel you've been bullied into a different course of action.

Re: Disagreements

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:04:33 GMT

Most recent disagreement.

I am the locum nurse, so know F**k all and would be as well cleaning the floors(not from the nurses I might add or the vets.... just one in particular.........new grad)

Hands me the lead , "dog has a sore neck so no yanking the lead" oookkkkkkkkaaayy then.

"I am gonna take bloods" so I hold the dog as gently as possible bearing in mind it has a very sore neck, I present cephalic....vets looks at me like I am from another planet......."I am taking it from the jugular" she says........ oh I say i thought it had a SORE NECK!!!!!!!?????

Anyway hold dog (again as carefully as I can)for jugular sample and it does the wall of death screaming in pain........... moral of the story, dont come in with the big I AM, cause you will be brought down to size very quickly from a experienced nurse, who waits for new grads with up there *** attitudes to fall into the pit of "A****ole territory.

This is no offence to all new grads, as most are lovely and willingly take advice of a nursing nature from the nurses.

Sorry guys had to share.

Re: Disagreements

dinkyd — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:15:10 GMT

Kerry - for what its worth i agree with the others i think you are doing the right thing - how dare that vet comment like that!Bloody cheek!Not very professional either.Hope your girl remains comfortable.xx

Re: Disagreements

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:08:33 GMT

Kerry, that vet sounds like a right A******e to me.

Re: Disagreements

Sal the 1st — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:53:18 GMT

in agreement with Saskia when my Willow cat was nearing the end my vet offered me all sorts of stuff - but then they did respect my wishes when i said all I wanted to do was keep her comfortable until the time came. She 21 1/2 years old had been hyperthyroid from the age of 16 which we were treating first with neomercazole and then felimazole when it came out(we had tried surgery but she still ended up hyper again in a short time), had crf which we were treating with fortekor. Like I say to clients nobody will know their pet as well as they do and we have to respect that. maybe you could talk it over with your vet and let them know how you feel and how that comment has made you feel

Re: Disagreements

Sal the 1st — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:45:17 GMT

Nick Shackleton - absolutely agree re immobilon. I have only once had to administer I think it was Narketan as my vet was allergic to revivon. Administered because he scratched himself with a needle containing large animal immobilon. Got the first one in i/v as instructed and then stuck another in his rump. The immobilon never affected him in the slightest (if he got any of it in the first place) but after the rump shot he said through gritted teeth' you can stop now I dont need anymore - because that hurts and if you do that again I will have to hit you!' . We are still friends

Re: Disagreements

Saskia Quinn — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:44:57 GMT

[quote user="Kerry Haigh"]

I've seen some pretty discraceful stuff in my previous years of nursing, some of which I'm not going to divulge on here (you never know who's watching).

My 15 year old kitty has recently been diagnosed with an abdominal mass. I've decided not to ex lap to investigate the abdo mass, as she is already hyperthyroid and has renal dz. I've been made to feel like I don't care by one of the vets as they seem to think I should opt for surgery. I explained that due to her age and other conditions I feel that surgery would be too much (we think it's on her liver anyway) and probably wouldn't solve the situation. The reply I got back was 'well if it was my cat I would be doing everything possible to save her life'!!

Yeah like I'm not?, but I think I'm being realistic don't you? I know pts is going to be in the next few months but until then she's coping and so am I.

[/quote]

Kerry I do empathise with you. Quite frankly, knowing the history, how dare the vet make assumptions like that And, yes, you are being realistic. If you cat is coping, then why fix it when its not broken? As you say, she hasnt years to live so why contribute to her death by putting her under a ga severely comprising her kidneys in the process and from which she may not recover or become even more ill with increased damage again to the kidneys. I am in a similar situation to you. I would leave well enough alone for the time being and just take it day by day. If your vet had any common sense whatsoever, they would see that.

Re: Disagreements

Sal the 1st — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:37:12 GMT

L+s+s - you post rings quite a few bells - there cannot be two places like this can there??

I remember very clearly thio top ups with animals sometimes taking days to recover. That anaesthetic machine man was a helluva time coming!