Spooky's Story- A Survivor's Tale
I would like to share my story which might help someone in the future. My advise before I tell my story, is to follow your gut, if your gut tells you something is wrong, leave and get a second opinion do not leave your pet under the care of someone who gives you a sinking feeling.I Rescued a small healthy female cat when she was a kitten. After a year of having her she was playing with one of my other cats and I thought she may have gotten a small scratch on her eye, because I notice a little mark on her eye after. I call the vet right away as she had a white line the size of the tip of a needle. I did not waste any time and took her right away to the vet who sent her drops 4-5 times a day. I took her to work to make sure she never missed a dose and I watch her get worse and worse every day. A week later I called the vet and explained she was getting worse and I was asked to come back so that we could change her meds, her meds were changed and she was sent home with Pills and drops. Two weeks later her eye continue to get worse. I called the vet very worried because I know cat’s eyes are very delicate and I did not wanna take the risk of my baby losing her eye, so I was asked to come back and get new medicine this time pills drops and some sort of ointment. To make a long story short I went back almost weekly for 5 months and each time having to pay visits, eye solutions and new medications and not once was I told that they were only guessing her condition and did not have the knowledge or tools to diagnose my cat’s eye. Even though I had a l gut feeling something was wrong and to get a second opinion, I never really did and trusted the “professionals”. 😞 After 5 months and $3500 in expenses the doctor informed me that the only solution to avoid her pain was to remove the eye, he even went as far as offering me a discount from $1200 to $1000 and he scheduled the surgery. I was devastated my little girl is very delicate and at just one year of age was about to lose her eye. That day I came home and added myself to every cat group that was available on facebook and posted graphic pictures of her eye begging for advice or for someone who had similar issues to share their experiences. The same night I posted, someone explained to me there was such a thing as an eye specialist for Cats and that I should definitely give that a try before removing her eye. Animal eye specialists are not very common so sometimes you have to travel to a nearby town in order to find one, which was my case. When I called Doctor Brown I was told the first appointment would be $300 which did not include meds or anything other than exam and was due regardless the outcome (it could have been $300 to be told to remove the eye, but at that point I also wanted a professional to remove the eye, not a general vet). I was worried as I spent my savings paying the vet bills for what I thought was a good treatment, so it was a hard decision in a way because I am not a rich person but I love my baby so I bit the bullet, made the appointment, and took her in. To be honest when we arrived I did not have much hope and perhaps I just wanted a clear conscious that she didn’t lose her eye because of my negligence. Within a few minutes after the specialist looked at her eye he said “not a problem this can be fixed do not remove her eye, cancel your appointment, I have the solution, this is the treatment and I’ll see you in two weeks”. In this case a picture says more than 1000 words. Two weeks later her eye was 98% back to normal and this just a week before her eye removal appointment. $3500 was wasted on a negligent vet who not once informed me was guessing and had no idea of what he was doing, not once did he warned me that what he was doing could make it much worse than leaving the eye alone. I’m glad my baby still has her eye and I’m forever thankful to the person who provided me with the correct information online and guided me to seek proper help. As for Doctor Brown he is my hero. In my view the first vet was negligent because he should have been honest and stop causing more damage and taking the money of a concerned pet owner. I felt used, lied to and I felt that my cat’s eye was never his priority, it did not made a difference to him if she lost her eye. If I would not have gotten a second opinion my cat would be missing an eye and I would have no way to prove the pain this vet caused and the negligence and lack of ethics of the vet and institution.
