A heartbroken man claims a vet’s mistake cost him his dog’s life – and now he is seeking advice on how to move forward to make sure he gets justice for his beloved pet
A man has shared his heartache after euthanising his dog to save him from a ‘slow, painful death’ – only to learn about the vet’s mistake after the fact. He explained how he took to his dog to an emergency vet 20 to 30 minutes after he started showing signs of bloating.
When he arrived, the vet rushed his dog into the back to ‘stabilise’ him and started running scans to discover his issue. He said on Reddit: “After asking some questions I decided the other scans weren’t immediately necessary and ask her to just do the scan on his belly to check if he’s bloated and if it had already turned into GDV (Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus), which means the stomach had already turned and he needs emergency surgery instead of decompression and an IV.
“The vet leaves again for another 20 minutes and comes back and confirms it’s GDV and starts trying to show me a picture of the scan on her phone.”
He claims the vet told him his dog would die in two to three hours without surgery.
He added: “She then proceeds to tell me that due to his age, 13 as a bigger dog who previously had surgery for something unrelated, there’s a low chance of him surviving the surgery and even if he does survive the surgery there’s a higher chance he will die during recovery.
“She recommends I euthanise him and put him out of his misery. I could hear my dog from the waiting room still crying even though he was ‘stabilised’ and under medication/sedation.”
Not wanting his dog to suffer, he made the hard decision to have him euthanised.
He said: “He was also suffering from tumours and had a surgery Q2 of this year. His hips were also bad and he had another tumour that grew which I felt didn’t show any signs of progressing so it could’ve been benign.”
After retuning home in tears, he tried to find peace in the fact he did right by his dog – but then he received an unexpected phone call.
“I got a call from a corporate supervisor or something with the company,” he said. “Turns out the vet misread the scan. She wasn’t supposed to make that call or even recommend euthanasia.
“They have a policy in place where she should’ve asked a specialist to read the scan and if there was no specialist she uploads it to the system and waits for one of their on call specialist to send back their reading.
“We spoke for quite a while and she tried to convince me it was an honest mistake and that maybe the vet was tired… it was like 8-9pm when I got there with my dog.”
Filled with rage and sadness, he ended the call and told her he’d speak to her another day.
Since then, the vets have been trying to convince him they’re “professionals” and this has never happened before – but he is now seeking legal advice.
Taking to Reddit to vent, he added: “Anyone who can forward me some info on the right way to do this I would highly appreciate it.
“I know this will be costly but my dog is 100% worth it and if this prevents this insane heartbreak from happening to anyone else I’d consider this a huge win
“I miss you so much bud and I’m so sorry I f***ed up like this. I fucking should’ve known better and trusted my gut.”
Commenting on his post, people were quick to reassure the devastated pet owner that they had done nothing wrong.
One user said: “After hearing all the other stuff wrong with him, while it was done under absolutely incorrect pretences, it probably was the best for him, just not because of this specific issue.”
Meanwhile, another user added: “You made the best decision you could with the information you had at the time. In an extremely emotionally vulnerable state.”