Pets Undercover, Tonight

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:33:28 GMT

Lol, they are getting pissed off, and they are giving you the rebuff.I still have no reply to mine........ it must be at the bottom of the pile

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Saskia Quinn — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:31:07 GMT

Looks like ITV had very little to say. Their reply is below

Dear Ms Quinn,

Thank you for your further email. We don’t consider the programme represented the Veterinary profession as a whole in a negative light, and we have not as you suggest received thousands of complaints, but we do thank you for your interest in the programme.

Yours sincerely,

Katie Godfrey
Researcher

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Saskia Quinn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:48:12 GMT

yes, definitely start it, we can share stories

I'm off to bed though but I will join in tomorrow

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:46:23 GMT

Ok so will i start it? we could make a cremola foam and other delights you dont get anymore

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Saskia Quinn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:40:40 GMT

[quote user="STRVN"]

[quote user="SaskiaVN"]

[quote user="STRVN"]

ok ok cremola foam was NOT supposed to be on here....lol i will try again

[/quote]

hehe Sandra BRING IT ON!! OMG it is so long from I even tasted that stuff!

[/quote]

Lol I was trying to quote what you said, but that ended up on it......... Gremlins in the works, and I could not delete it. It must be fate, we need a Cremola foam thread

[/quote]

I second that!!

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:38:13 GMT

[quote user="SaskiaVN"]

[quote user="STRVN"]

ok ok cremola foam was NOT supposed to be on here....lol i will try again

[/quote]

hehe Sandra BRING IT ON!! OMG it is so long from I even tasted that stuff!

[/quote]

Lol I was trying to quote what you said, but that ended up on it......... Gremlins in the works, and I could not delete it. It must be fate, we need a Cremola foam thread

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Saskia Quinn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:36:30 GMT

[quote user="STRVN"]

ok ok cremola foam was NOT supposed to be on here....lol i will try again

[/quote]

hehe Sandra BRING IT ON!! OMG it is so long from I even tasted that stuff!

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Saskia Quinn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:35:27 GMT

[quote user="Maisy"]

Very well said that girl! Completely agree

[/quote]

Thanks Maisy - I was speaking for all of the profession, not just me

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Saskia Quinn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:33:42 GMT

[quote user="SaskiaVN"]

Indeed!! Something tells me I will be waiting for a while though!

[/quote]

oops WE will be waiting for a while!!

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Saskia Quinn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:33:08 GMT

Indeed!! Something tells me I will be waiting for a while though!

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:32:09 GMT

[quote user="SaskiaVN"]

await your reply with interest.

[/quote]

thats better.... WE await the reply too Paula, lets see what they say to that

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:31:14 GMT

ok ok cremola foam was NOT supposed to be on here....lol i will try again

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Maisy — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:30:57 GMT

Very well said that girl! Completely agree

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Saskia Quinn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:27:34 GMT

OK OK OK OK !!!!!!!!!! What are you all like!!

Here it is! And before I do post it, it wont contain anything which would offend or annoy a stranger reading on this forum hehe (may not be entirely all my doing though!)

Dear Ms Godfrey,

Thank you for your email dated today.

Quite frankly, I disagree with your reply and am not at all satisfied by it. Firstly, it did not answer my original questions so I will post them again below;

"1. To present an animal to the vet faking an illness is very unfair to the vet concerned. Any genuine vet will believe the pet owner that the animal is off its food etc. A clinical examination will then take place. The majority of vets will administer an anti-biotic and/or anti-inflammatory treatment, even if only to cover themselves in the event of complaint. What else can they do if they find the pet clinically normal?
2. The case of a rabbit off its food is often a cause for concern. Yes, teeth would be the first thing to be checked. As well as that, as rabbits are unable to vomit - gut stasis is of the utmost importance. The failure of gut stasis in a rabbit can very often result in the death of that rabbit - and this can happen very quickly.
3. As for the poor cat? Well, is it any wonder the second time it was brought to the vet it scrabbed one of them? How can you justify stressing the cat all for the sake of trying to give the veterinary profession a bad name? As for stress in rabbits - well thats another story."

"Quite frankly, I am appalled by this programme. It was all one-sided just to batter the veterinary profession. Of course Mark Abraham was going to bad-mouth the other vets the healthy animals had seen and their opinions!!!! He knew there was nothing wrong with them before they even entered his consulting room so that was easy for him!!! It was a very unfair and unjustified programme. Who came up with the idea anyway?"

The main concern that worried me after viewing the programme was the fact that, on the whole, it represented the Veterinary profession in a very negative light. It offered no comparison to positive veterinary practice.

Failure to find something wrong on a clinical examination does not mean that an animal is not unwell - just that it can be seen/felt. Animals - namely rabbits do not show symptoms of being unwell until they are severely ill and that is why faster intervention is often required than would be in a human.

I feel it was absolutely appalling that Marc Abraham and ITV took these pets on a trip to different veterinary practices for the sake of mystery shopping and television. Did any of you realise how stressful it is for a pet (especially a rabbit) to undergo an examination often including having their temperature taken with a rectal thermometer? Would this happen to a child? How many rabbits and cats enjoy being 'placed' in and out of a carrier. Was the welfare of these pets even thought about while making such a programme? I shudder to think of rabbit owners who might ignore the fact that their pet bunny has not eaten for 2 days because the 'vet on tv' said it was healthy.

Why did Marc imply that his treatment recommendations were the only correct ones? And that the treatment options offered by the other vets were incorrect? When, from what anyone watching the programme had been told, false histories were given and the correct action taken by each vet - it seems that in each case, all the treatment offered seemed perfectly reasonable, correct, and most importantly, showed no evidence of overcharging and unnecessary treatment which was supposedly the whole point of the programme?

Why were none of the 'supposedly wrong' vets given the chance to explain why they recommended the treatment they did? Presumably because that would have conveyed to the audience that, actually, a perfectly good service was provided, which wouldnt have been in fitting with the theme of the programme.

The reason the entire veterinary community is so annoyed with this programme is because it destroyed everything we work for on a daily basis. In the practice where I am employed, we have been building up a trust with our clients for a few years now. Yet, one silly, irresponsible, biased programme has done a great job of destroying the trust that we have developed with our clients. Clients have came in, reluctant to take any medication or consider any work up for their extremely unwell pets, purely on the basis of this programme!

Unfortunately, your programme succeeded in undermining people's faith in the veterinary profession as a whole, meaning that people may be less inclined to take their animals for examination when they appear unwell and less inclined to follow the recommendations given by their vet as they will assume that all the vet is interested in is profit. This may not have been Mr Abraham's intention, but given his extensive experience with the media, he should have not allowed himself to be involved in a programme such as this, or, as he did, he should have had enough sense not to say such inflammatory, incorrect and dangerous things he did.

I now ask you and ITV to take these comments on board as with all the other thousand's of complaints I am sure you must have received.

Give the veterinary profession a chance to speak up for themselves, to disclose to the public why they offer the treatment they do, and most importantly of all, offer a right of reply to the vets who were critised by Marc Abraham in this programme. Better again, offer the right of reply to all veterinary practices in the UK who are suffering as a result of this programme.

I am aware of Marc Abrahams's disclaimer towards the end of the programme, but the bulk of the programme was about the dog, rabbit and cat and Marc Abraham should have known that telling a worried client that their animal is fine, is a very difficult call - practically and legally.

I await your reply with interest.

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Maisy — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:23:31 GMT

Am half inclined to recommend that you post the reply on here Paula. Maybe I'm in a more stroppy mood tonight, but this is our forum for nurses, so if there is an imposter not liking what they're reading, then tough! They can go elsewhere and leave this site to who its meant for.

Rant over!

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Saskia Quinn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:22:43 GMT

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:18:48 GMT

Get that on here, that was a great reply.

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:08:41 GMT

I have pm'd you to Paula

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Saskia Quinn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:08:17 GMT

got it!! hehe

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Sal the 1st — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:05:52 GMT

have sent you a message

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Saskia Quinn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:57:41 GMT

peeps, for obvious reasons as stated by Sal above, I retract my statement to post my reply here on the forum. If you do want to know about it, PM me

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Sal the 1st — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:48:04 GMT

ta muchly

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Saskia Quinn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:47:12 GMT

ok, I will pm it to you!!

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Sal the 1st — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:39:52 GMT

would love to see it - but dont forget there are members of the public that come on this site too.

Re: Pets Undercover, Tonight

Saskia Quinn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:24:29 GMT

[quote user="sal the 1st"]

Maybe the right of reply should be extended to every practice and practice member they have tarred.

[/quote]

I included this in my reply - I asked them to give consider the right of reply to the vets Marc Abraham was so keen to 'put down' as well as giving EVERY practice in the UK a chance to point their point across as I am sure they are all suffering to an extent as a result of this excuse for a programme.

I am happy to post my reply to ITV here if anyone is wanting to see it.