Pets Undercover

The title of this post is the same as that of a very interesting programme shown on ITV 1 last night. It was part of the regular "Tonight" series of reports, and featured the rising costs of veterinary treatment and vets who charged for treatment that animals don't need, just to rake in more money. It was very interesting because we had exactly the same problem with a vet a few years ago.

Our Labrador had a fit one afternoon (I know what a fit looks like, as we had an epileptic dog in the past). We called our local vet, and someone came out to check the dog.

Our dog was then hospitalised overnight, put on a drip, had blood tests and when we collected him next day we were given heart medication and anti-inflammatory drugs for arthritis, as well as the obligatory antibiotics which every pet owner now seems to be lumbered with whenever they visit their vet for anything other than the annual boosters!

We read the details of the heart medication which we had been charged for, and the list of symptoms it was supposed to treat did not apply to our dog. He did not cough, was not breathless and was generally physically fit for his age - and he did not have any arthritis.

We were not happy with the crap we had been fed by this particular vet, so we went for a second opinion, which confirmed what we knew - our dog was not arthritic and did not have any heart problem.

The dog's behaviour started to become what I can only describe as "weird" - he would stand and stare at walls and he started to "forget" his house training. We went back to the vet, who told us the dog was "going a bit gaga!"

I had looked at my copy of "Black's Veterinary Dictionary" (I had always wanted to be a vet) and our dog's symptoms pointed to a brain tumour. Still this "gaga" idea persisted, until one day in February 2006.

Our dog had two fits in quick succession, and ended up unable to move properly. We called the vet out, and thankfully this time saw a new one. She told us that the problem was most likely to be a brain tumour, and the only kind course of treatment was to put the dog to sleep there and then, which we agreed to. We have since lost all faith in the veterinary profession.

Read about the programme here.