Did my Vet act appropriately?

[litzo]

I would like an opinion on how my Vets approached this situation.  My male 6-year old cat has had diarrhea on and off for several months (several weeks he was fine and then he may have a couple of days of very stinky sticky feces).  He eats/drinks/plays as before.  Analysis of feces showed no parasites so I brought him in to the Vet's office on Sunday.  They said they won't know what causes it unless they do the full analysis.  Here is what they did :

1) hospitalized him for 4 days
2) X-rays under full anesthesia (so IV's, cardiogram, etc.)
3) Full blood-work and cultures analysis
4) Thyroid tests
5) Endoscopy
6) Colonoscopy (not under full anesthesia, under something that made him woozy)
7) 5(!) biopsies of stomach matter

After all this they said they ruled out a lot of things and it's probably Inflammatory Bowel Disease and gave me special food and medication.

This cost a total of $3800 (!) which is very difficult for me and in addition all the procedures were very traumatic for the cat.  

Were all these actions necessary??  Wasn't IBD most likely cause and should they have tested for it first before subjecting him to the whole gamut?

[tizz422]

My cat has a similar problem and we spent 750 dollars a couple months ago trying to get it under control, the vet said they have to do a biopsy of several different parts of the intestine to see if that is what it is for sure. Did they do this to your cat or just start treating it with meds for IBD. I like you do not have any more money to spend on my cat, but am having a hard time coming to terms with that.

[Savas]

Ah...if he had foreign objects in his stomach, then he may well have needed all that. Luckily, nothing serious came about from it.

Your instincts are right...most vets under test to save owner's money and end up missing a crucial piece of info that's the difference between life and death. Speak to them about your concerns next time and they should come to an arrangement for dealing with approvals for specific costs and tests.

[litzo]

Thanks everyone.  I've had the same issue with these vets before (feeling that they do one too many things just to charge us) but I keep coming back because they are thorough, they have solved all problems we had, they have more equipments than other offices and they always seem well disposed towards the animals.  They cleaned out a bunch of mess from his stomach (looks like he's been eating carpet) and got him on prednisone, antibiotics and flagyl.  Plus the special IBD venison diet.  He's been doing fine for the past week - pooping normally.  I'm not going to report them or to sue them because ultimately I feel they did solve the problem and also ruled out other things (although I haven't asked them to) but I found another doctor, highly recommended, who I'm going to try for our next visit.  

[suzysdone]

I found some more information on the net hope it helps
How to Treat a Cat That has Diarrhea
by Sheldon Rubin, DVM

Cat care involves occasional unpleasant issues such as diarrhea. This condition usually is minor and temporary, and a little tender loving care from you can help your cat recover quickly.
Diarrhea is a commonly encountered problem that occurs when food is passed through the intestine too rapidly. It can be caused by allergies, milk, worms, spoiled food, or plants. There are also more serious causes such as tumors, viral infections, and diseases of the liver, pancreas, and kidney. It is important to seek professional help if your cat's diarrhea includes blood or your cat experiences severe depression or abdominal pain.
If your cat is experiencing a minor case of diarrhea, use the following cat care tips:
Step 1: Remove all of the cat's food for at least 12 to 24 hours. Water is important to prevent cat dehydration during severe diarrhea. It should not be removed.
Step 2: If blood appears or if diarrhea continues for more than 24 hours, contact the veterinarian.
Step 3: After 12 to 24 hours, feed the cat a mixture of small quantities of boiled chicken breasts, skinned and boned, with rice (a 50:50 mixture). Alternately, chicken baby food may be substituted. This diet should continue until stools are formed. Gradually mix in regular cat food, reducing the chicken and rice amounts and increasing the regular cat food amounts.
Step 4: Your veterinarian may want you to start the cat an oral antidiarrheal medication. Do not use any medication unless instructed to do so.
©Publications International, Ltd.
There are so many p;ces to look for information.

I did not not realize that you can not put your email on these posts so I will try it this way
dozzersdoll40  hotmail com you know what goes in between

[Joalbert]

Well I think they made you pay for lots of tests that they didn't need to do, they wasted your money....I think they were only trying to make money out of you. I understand x-rays to see if theres something in there that can make him have diarrhea. Also I would've done a regular blood test check, But if the x-ray doesn't show anything then you can go to change the food....just to see if it's allergies. I work at an animal hospital and I think they used you a lot.
Well hope everything goes well.

[April2]

Mineral oil, huh? I wonder if I should give that a try. I still have two cats with diarhea. I had one vet on here that said to try Matamucil (the plain kind) on their food. I sure wish I could get rid of this diarhea too!

[suzysdone]

I think that whole situation is insane. This vet sounds loke a complete *&^%$ money sceming son of a you know what. I am a not a vet, but I am a certified vet assistant, and have worked for a clinic for quite some time, which I do not work for anymore because of all the unethacal things that I witnessed. I do feel for you a I have a do and two cats myself. Those are my babies. First of all a animal can have diareheaa for nurmorous reasons, such as eating sometnig that he was allergic to. If they found no parisites from doing a fecal and his blood work was normal. That should have been it. I your, baby is acting normal, I would not worry. What they did to that poor animal is horrible and very tramatic. I hope you report this vet. Better busniess bureau is a good place to start also word of mouth. The vet I worked for was in Florida. We had a person drop of 3 kittens that were 3 weeks old and just left them there, one had been attacked by a raccon. The Vets answer was to euthanize them but I took them all home and nutured them and they were all adopted out except the one that was attacked by the raccoon I kept him we had to amputate his front leg. He is doing great now,  I named him shoulders. The vet had told me he would never make is but all it took was love and some medication for infection. When he was about 1 1/2 months he got severe diaherea, she wanted to do all sorts of tests on him but wouln't let her. He had just had his leg taken off I got on the internet and sat for hours looking up different home remedies he had alreay had all the normal test prosedures done befor his surgery. I found one site that said to give him just 2 drops of mineral oil in his food a day. Within afew days he was poopping just fine. An anoimal can get diaherrea from tons of things from eating something bad to stress. Stress can effect an animal just as bad as it can to a human being. I relly hope you didn'y pay this vet. Please find another one. If you ever want to talk anymore about this you can e-mail me at ***@****. I hope this helped and i hope your baby if fine.

[April2]

I kinda went through this same thing and am thinking about changing vets. Sometimes I wonder if all they really care about is money. I've especially been feeling this way this last year or so since two of my favorite vets left this office and moved on. It started when the cat I was fostering had a litter of kittens and at 9 weeks I had found them a home. She got engorged with milk because the kittens weren't nursing anymore. I called the vets office and asked what I should do and was told rather sternly that I should bring her in because she could get mastisies (sp?) and could be serious. I told them I'd just wait and watch. I found out from someone else to try warm compresses (why couldn't they tell me that??). It took a couple of weeks, but the engorgement went down. Then the last month or so when I had the same cat come down with this nasty parasite and passed it on to the other cats in my house, I was told by one of the vets that I needed to hospitalize the two or they could die. I didn't think I could afford that and stalled on that. She was so stern and scared me! She was like, "You could lose these cats if you don't hospitalize them."
They made me feel like I was a horrible pet owner who didn't care about her pets! I finally felt a bit pressured to hospitalize the one cat because they just scared me and I didn't want to lose her, but I still wondered if it was really necessary. They felt like she was a bit dehydrated and wanted to give her an IV. I agreed and agreed to more testing to see why the cats were still having diarhea. We still don't know! They wanted to check for Pancreatitis and cancer which would have cost a pretty penny and I said, "Wait a minute. They caught Giardia, which is a parasite, from the one cat. How does that have anything to do with cancer?" Which I heard something to the effect of well, their immune system could be down and exposed something that had already been there and blah, blah, blah. Well, I've already spent probably $500-$600 on these cats just in the last few weeks. I cannot do anymore. I couldn't even really afford that. There's one receptionist and one vet in particular that I don't care for. They've been a little snotty.You can almost see them thinking, "Well, why do they have pets then if they can't afford it?" It makes me feel like I'm a bad pet owner and then I feel guilty if I don't do more! Ahrgg! I can't stand it! I do the best I can and I do love my pets. I wish they'd have a little more compassion. Ugh. Well anyway, that's how I feel! :)

[Savas]

Uh...shoot. Usually you assume a less serious illness and try treating for that. If treatment doesn't work...then you ask the owner if they're willing to run the full gambit.

I would ask your vet specifically what he thought made it necessary to do all this. If he can't justify it...I'd take him to small claims court.

If you do this, be sure to get a secondary opinion from another vet (I'd take him off any med's for a week and then take the cat in. An examination in this state would be similar to the situation at the previous exam).

The one good thing I can say about this situation is at least you don't have to worry about your pet having any strange illnesses/diseases.

I'd stick him in the freezer to keep him exactly the way he is right now, very healthy! :)

[bedtimestory]

Absolutely not. Please don't take him to that same clinic again. Your vet is a pathetic thief. Hope your cat is doing better.

[Meadow77]

I have had the same mystery illness with my 5 kittens /cat . I however live in a place where vets care about pets and not money. I feel very bad for you and your baby. If you feed him canned plain pumpkin it will help him a bit. You vet was very wrong to do what they did!!!