Terrifying Experience at The Vet

[Hellbilly]

Hello all. I will go post a introduction right after this. Sorry for this long one; it's difficult to explain quickly.

We took our 3 1/2 yo Nanday into a board certified avian vet yesterday for his first time. We wanted to do the right thing and take him in for regular visits. We had a 5 yo Sun Conure drop dead from the perch suddenly before and we are asking ourselves if she could have had a condition that we could have saved her from.

Anyway, the doctor came in and did a physical exam and asked us questions. Then she said they wanted to get some blood and explained how it was easy and not to worry. We didn't like that they were taking him somewhere else, but we decided we picked this vet because they should know what they are doing (we drove 2 hours to go to a board cert avian vet). Well, about 15 minutes later a different doctor comes in the room and introduces herself as the board certified vet and says she did an exam back there and he looked good. We thought that was kind of weird that she didn't just do the original exam. About 15 more minutes later the tech comes in and says they are having trouble getting blood and they are going to give him a break. I really didn't get a good feeling at this point, but we didn't know what to do. About 15 minutes later we hadn't heard anything so we went out front and asked what was going on. They told us he had been resting and now they were going to get the blood. Another 15-20 minutes go by and I'm a nervous wreck, but the vet finally come in with Floki and he's not looking good at all. She tells us he not right and he must have a liver disease and/or heart disease. They want to keep him overnight and give him meds and fluids. We absolutely do not want to do that because we think he's about to die and this might be the last time we see him. Well, she stays in the exam room with us for about an hour explaining what she thinks could be going on. She swears she observed the entire restraint. He finally starts coming around and moving a little, but he's still not right. He's still not right 16 hours later, but he's acting like himself at least. He just acts real sore and tired and sluggish.

They gave us a Vasodilator med and antibiotics and they want us to bring him back in a month to get blood and an X-ray so we can find out what's wrong with him. At this point we don't know what to do. I know they can hide illness really well, but we had this vibrant and alert, seemingly healthy bird that looked like he was on death's door an hour later. I know no one on here is going to give me advice against the doctor's recommendations. I just want to see if anyone else has a had similar experience at the vet. If we take hime back, we are going to insist that one of us observes the process. I forgot to mention that they never were able to get blood and his feet are all purple. She said that his veins blew out and that is a symptom of liver disease.

We are really scared to take hime back, but if he is diseased we want to give him the proper care. We don't know what to think right now. It sucks that we have no level of trust with this vet.

 

[Emma&pico]

So sorry you had a rough time at the vets

 

[Rebel]

Theres no way i would go back there. Too many vets nowadays allow their techs to practice on our animals. We pay the big bucks for a vet, not a tech.I drive 2 hours to get to my non certified vet. I would think nothing of driving 4 hrs to get to get to a certified vet if need be.

 

[April]

This does sound a little strange I must admit. At my clinic(not certified) we take the blood in front of the owner and if we are unable to get it after the initial try we recommend them to come back another day.
When I took my various parrots to a board certified avian vet everything was always done in front of me except for xrays and ultrasound.

If you do go back perhaps talk to them prior to anything being done and politely explain your concerns and ask if they will try to take the blood in the room.

 

[Zilga]

This does sound a little strange I must admit. At my clinic(not certified) we take the blood in front of the owner and if we are unable to get it after the initial try we recommend them to come back another day.
When I took my various parrots to a board certified avian vet everything was always done in front of me except for xrays and ultrasound.

If you do go back perhaps talk to them prior to anything being done and politely explain your concerns and ask if they will try to take the blood in the room.

Our vet also generally does stuff in front of us other than imaging. If it were me, I'd take my bird to another vet right away if you can find another bird vet, which I know is a challenge, because I'd be worried that they hurt the bird. Our vet is very careful about weighing the stress of a procedure against the benefits, and it doesn't sound like they did that at all.

 

[rocky'smom]

this does sound very strange to me. I'm a firm believer that if my feathered kid needs blood work done, i'm darn well going to be present and in the room. if you are seeing one vet then that should be the only person you are talking too not a group of different people. I would find another board certified avian vet as soon as possible. also if they have Google listing leave a review.

 

[Mizzely]

If it were me, I would be looking for a different vet for a second opinion if at all possible. I've been through good vets and bad vets, and I know they aren't always easy to find, but I've even had a very sick bird with a heart murmur at the vet before and didn't have anything close to the experience you had.

My local vet is not board certified, and he will readily admit that while he has 20+ years experience with exotics, I know if we have something really big I will have to travel 3+ hours to one who is. But, he handles my birds very well and with confidence, and doesn't gaslight me when I have concerns.

 

[Hellbilly]

Thanks for all the replies. After my wife and I talked about it some more we realized there were a few other fishy things that happened. The first vet asked if we wanted Floki's nails trimmed and we said no. We didn't want to put him under any more stress than necessary and we trim his nails regularly. Well, they trimmed his nails while he was away from us. Now we are wondering when they did that; before or after they tried to draw blood. Another thing we realized is that after the initial exam from the first doctor, we never saw her again. But the meds they prescribed for his supposed heart condition have her name on there as the one who prescribed. We are thinking the older board certified vet knows they screwed up and she doesn't want here name associated with this. Maybe the first one couldn't face us after she made a mistake and almost killed Floki?

We did some more research and I'm 99% sure he was in shock when they brought him back to us. I think we are very lucky he is still alive and we are kicking ourselves for not doing things differently. I just wish we had stopped them when they told us they were having trouble.

He's made a big improvement today. He has this thing he does that we call exercising, where he stands on his platform that the cage door forms and flaps his wings like he's flying. He normally flaps like crazy for like 10 seconds and rests with his wings spread like he's gliding. He just did like a quarter speed version for a few flaps. He acts like he is very sore all over. He has trouble climbing around in his cage, but he's slowly improving. I think he's going to make it, but we keep breaking down crying for putting him through this. I'm sure others can understand how guilty we feel. I wish we had never taken him to the vet at this point.

 

[Emma&pico]

Thanks for all the replies. After my wife and I talked about it some more we realized there were a few other fishy things that happened. The first vet asked if we wanted Floki's nails trimmed and we said no. We didn't want to put him under any more stress than necessary and we trim his nails regularly. Well, they trimmed his nails while he was away from us. Now we are wondering when they did that; before or after they tried to draw blood. Another thing we realized is that after the initial exam from the first doctor, we never saw her again. But the meds they prescribed for his supposed heart condition have her name on there as the one who prescribed. We are thinking the older board certified vet knows they screwed up and she doesn't want here name associated with this. Maybe the first one couldn't face us after she made a mistake and almost killed Floki?

We did some more research and I'm 99% sure he was in shock when they brought him back to us. I think we are very lucky he is still alive and we are kicking ourselves for not doing things differently. I just wish we had stopped them when they told us they were having trouble.

He's made a big improvement today. He has this thing he does that we call exercising, where he stands on his platform that the cage door forms and flaps his wings like he's flying. He normally flaps like crazy for like 10 seconds and rests with his wings spread like he's gliding. He just did like a quarter speed version for a few flaps. He acts like he is very sore all over. He has trouble climbing around in his cage, but he's slowly improving. I think he's going to make it, but we keep breaking down crying for putting him through this. I'm sure others can understand how guilty we feel. I wish we had never taken him to the vet at this point.

So glad he’s feeling a bit better please don’t blame yourself you were doing what you thought was right

 

[Buddyger.]

I wouldn't go back, something seems fishy with that for sure. I work in the vet med field and they should have been willing to do the blood work in front of you. It can be stressful for birds being restrained for blood work, but if you do it properly, there is no reason for shock or stress like that. I'm sorry you had a bad experience. If you are concerned about liver disease, make sure you are feeding a balanced diet, and you can also watch the feces for yellowish urates and other signs. Definitely do not blame yourself for any of that, you did the right thing taking Floki to a vet. It sounds like they screwed up.

Hopefully Floki's doing better now!

 

[Hellbilly]

Well, a lot has happened in the last week and a half. Floki is doing very well, I would say he is 90% back to normal. We finally were able to speak to the vet after 10 days! We called several times before this to try to ask more questions. We were finally able to get a hold of the hospital director after 7 days to voice our concerns.
The boarded vet is straight up lying to us now, denying that she told us she observed the blood draw attempts. It turns out that the first doctor (a resident) and the technicians did the restraint/blood draw. We asked for the medical record the day after the visit in case we needed to take him somewhere else quickly. The record they sent us didn’t say anything about what happened. We brought this up to the director and she said she would have the doc do an addendum. Five requests later we finally got the records yesterday and it is filled with lies from the avian vet. She is downplaying the whole thing and denying what she told us during the visit. She is claiming he looked fine until the moment she brought him back to us. We are pretty sure that they spent those 10 days getting their story straight, probably with advice from their attorney.
At this point we have spoken to our attorney to see if there’s anything we can do legally. I’m assuming no, but she’s looking into it. We are making a complaint to the state vet board on Friday. We are assuming that won’t go anywhere either, but it’s our only recourse this point.
I don’t know that I should name the vet on here yet, but I sure want to. I’ll ask the attorney next time we speak if it’s ok. I want anyone on here that may be using this vet to know who they are dealing with.
Also, we spoke with another vet that we are hoping can be his new doctor. They aren’t boarded, but it seems like they have a lot of experience with bird medicine.

 

[Hellbilly]

I wouldn't go back, something seems fishy with that for sure. I work in the vet med field and they should have been willing to do the blood work in front of you. It can be stressful for birds being restrained for blood work, but if you do it properly, there is no reason for shock or stress like that. I'm sorry you had a bad experience. If you are concerned about liver disease, make sure you are feeding a balanced diet, and you can also watch the feces for yellowish urates and other signs. Definitely do not blame yourself for any of that, you did the right thing taking Floki to a vet. It sounds like they screwed up.

Hopefully Floki's doing better now!

Thanks. We weren’t concerned about liver disease before this visit. He has eaten pellets mostly his entire life. He doesn’t eat seeds much and gets fresh fruit and veggies often. We are setting up an appointment with another vet to get him checked out properly.

 

[Hellbilly]

I just wanted to give an update on Floki and the board complaint in case anyone else is using this avian vet.

The board meeting was today and they didn’t do anything as expected. We attended in-person so they had to say it in front of us at least. We weren’t permitted to speak. They completely ignored our legitimate complaints and said it was just a communication issue in their opinion. We are assuming they just don’t want to open a can of worms with this big corporate vet. The board complaint was solid and we think they should have been given something for the records issue at a minimum. Nevermind them trimming his nails after we specifically told them not to. Oh well, life ain’t fair like they say.

Floki is doing great nowadays! We have reestablished trust with him and he seems really happy. We have taken him to his new vet twice and that has went very well. They aren’t avian boarded, but I would highly recommend. Grace Animal Hospital in Bridgeport, WV.

I would avoid MedVet Hilliard in Columbus, OH at all costs. I’ll leave it at that.

 

[Mizzely]

I'm sorry nothing happened. What a miserable experience for you all. Thank you for updating us!

 

[Rebel]

We weren’t permitted to speak

Nobody would silence me. Just sayin.

 

[merlinsmom13]

That's horrible, I'm sorry you had this happen. I dumped our first "bird" vet because I wouldn't let them treat him without me in the room. He's mine and I'm there or else. It's weird I think there are members and former members who use this vet. Maybe they chime in?

 

[KiMa27]

Thank you for updating us on Floki!!! I've been wondering how he was doing. Poor little guy. I'm sorry you all had to go through that. At least you did what you could. And it's great you found a new vet who treats Floki well!

 

[MnGuy]

Sorry all of this happened to you! I know this is not always possible, but after trying a few avian certified vets (some OK, some good), I only feel confident taking my birds to one who has parrots of her own. The difference in care and handling is day and night.