A couple of days ago we lost our beloved German Shepherd, Scooby, to heatstroke. So we wanted to reiterate the dangers and what to look out for.  Unfortunately, two veterinary practices we called didn’t consider him a priority and failed to act timely or appropriately.

It really breaks my heart. If it were not for office politics, my poor boy might still be alive today. He paid the ultimate price for a vet’s Sunday afternoon off.

Scooby was out for his usual walk at 10:30 that day and the weather was breezy, not very hot, but by 14:30 he started vomiting and eventually passing copious amounts of blood and stopped taking food.  I decided to call my old vet as they were much closer.  The surgery was literally 2 minutes walk from my home.  The receptionist advised me that because I’m no longer a client that I cannot use them in an emergency and have to call my own vet.  Well you can appreciate just how I reacted to that.  She said it was my choice to leave and just kept repeating herself while I argued with her.  It was a disgraceful thing to say.  I never got to speak to the actual vet and to be fair how is a receptionist qualified to say if a dog is at risk or not?

So I called the vet I’d recently registered with even though they’re 45 minutes drive.  I spoke to him on the phone but he didn’t stress for me to bring Scooby in to the surgery. He just advised me to keep him saturated to cool him down and monitor him. He said to try feeding him at 18:00.  I called him back around 18:00 and explained how Scooby was.  He was drinking water, not eating, not vomiting, but he was still passing blood.

The vet said he should be ok now and to remove the wet towel.  I asked about bringing him in that evening as he had suggested at 14:30 when we spoke, but he said he should be alright and to bring him in at 8:30 the next day.  So because he’s a vet and supposedly knows best, I took him at his word even though in my bones I knew something was wrong.

Scooby passed blood a couple more times and I sent another text to my vet and said I don’t feel comfortable waiting until the morning but he didn’t seem that keen for me to come in and explained he wouldn’t be able to insert an IV as he’s drinking water.  He said to just let the diorrhoea pass through (even though at this point it was literally pools of blood).  Plus, no one will be able to stay with him so he’d be alone in the clinic all night.  Meanwhile Scooby had passed even more blood, so I sent photos of this to the vet.  He didn’t respond to any following messages.  Well again, disgraceful!

By 21:45 my poor dog had deteriorated to the point he was very weak and could hardly stand. He managed to get up to go to the toilet. I kid you not, a geyser of blood gushed out of his rear end.  He then keeled over.  I was distraught so begged my old vet to see him, and finally got him to the surgery at 22:30, a full 8 hours after symptoms first appeared.  The vet was extremely good with him and she stayed all night.  She put him on an IV, gave him antibiotics and anti sickness injection.  She did everything she could and I can’t fault her there, unfortunately though, he passed away around 7:00 in the morning.

I feel if both surgeries had taken his situation seriously at 14:30 my gorgeous boy wouldn’t have suffered from internal bleeding for 8 hours and may still be alive today. Or at least would have had a fighting chance.  I mean vets are supposed to know better than anyone just how dangerous heat stroke is given there is a 50% mortality rate, right?

To say I’m disgusted and devastated is an understatement.  Vets are here to offer a level of care to animals.  To be refused emergency treatment simply because I was no longer registered goes against RCVS code of ethics and is totally unacceptable.  As for not wanting to give up their Sunday afternoon (or so it seemed), well, that is just completely and utterly disgraceful.  What’s more when I brought it up to both surgeries it was blamed on miscommunication, namely mine apparently.  Not an ounce of remorse from either.

So the moral of this story is, don’t take no for an answer.  You know your pet better than anyone.  If, in your gut, you know something is not right, you must fight for them.

Heatstroke signs to look out for

Please follow this link to the Royal Veterinary College which outlines what to look out for.  It lists the dangers and signs of heatstroke in both cats and dogs.