As most of your veteran YorkieTalkers know we had a puppy (barely 3 months old) of ours die back in June of 2005. We took him into the vet because he was experiencing a mild cough (one cough per hour..) and the vet desided to do what is called a transtracheal wash. When we dropped him off in the morning he was fine and full of energy and when we came to pick him up after the procedure he was in an oxygen tank unable to breathe on his own. He struggled for the next 5 days (and $4,000+ in doctors bills) trying to get better but finally his lungs gave out and he died at the local Animal Emeregency Hospital.
Being that it was pretty obvious that the procedure, which they had described as completely safe had caused his condition to deteriorate so rapidly I decided to do reasearch on kennel cough and small puppies. Unfortunately, my research showed that there was really no reason to risk the procedure (which included anestesia) on a puppy that was only showing symptoms of a small cough. Even x-rays that were taken by the Vet Hospital and sent out for interpretation suggested that he might have an EXTREMELY mild case of pneumonia and that he should be given then anti-biotic Clavamox to clear it up. Another telling sign was that AFTER he had been admitted into the Emergency Hospital, and needed oxygen just to breathe another x-ray was taken and their vet recommended medicine unless the conditions got even WORSE, and then they should consider doing a tracheal wash. With all of this evidence at my decided I thought we should contact the veterinarians office and request settlement for killing our puppy.
The first attempt was an informal presentation put together by me an was denied with no reasoning by their Insurance company. This only strengthened my deterimination and caused me to find a lawyer that specializes in animal rights. Our lawyer helped us put together a more formal settlement package, including an expert opinion from another veterinarian (cost us about $1000) and we forwarded it to the insurance company. This time they at least did some reasearch into the case. However, again they denied the claim, but the denials they used had relatively little to what we had actually claimed in our suit.
Now we are $5,000 later with nothing to show for it and our lawyer said our only other step is to try and take this trial to court, which I would love to do. Unfortunately, the cost to do this could be up between $3,000 and $5,000 and I am just not sure I could even come close to working that into my budget.
What would you guys do? I really don't want Chewy's death to be in vain, and I don't want them to do this to other dogs? I have thought about picketing out in front of their business and might do that regardless but still don't know if I can put together enough to really hit them where it matters.
It has been a very frustrating ordeal and I hope none of you EVER have to go through the same thing we have.