It Shouldnt Happen At a Vets

anniehoo

Is anyone else watching it now? Im practically speechless.:mad:

ill comment properly when its over.Furious :mad::mad::mad:

Owen

I'm watching it too. Shocked and speechless ...

Our man in Havana

That was upsetting to say the least.

FAYESY

I was totally horrified! Although I am sure I have had my pets treated by vets like the nasty ones shown!

I had 3 cats given back to me still anesatised - one did not appear to be breathing which freaked me out! It took hours for them to wake up & poor Pepper was bleeding where he had be neutered - totally shocking!

mymo

Fayesy, I have had the same with a cat a few years ago, vet knocked on the door and left her on the step, he was pulling away when I opened the door and shouted he was off home and couldn't wait for her to wake up! It was a farm vet who didn't think to highly of cats, but it shocked me. Thankfully vet I have now is lovely to animals.
I missed this and really wanted to see it, anyone know what day panarama is repeated?

anniehoo

Ive never found it so hard to write something on here EVER!

Im lost for words (believe me, ive started this reply 5 times already).

Firstly,Medivet! Good luck to your business, because its not going to last long after that programme. Secondly, i feel soooo sorry for any Vet Nurses watching it. They are the crux of every practice and through this programme have managed to paint such a bad picture for these ridiculously hard working professionals.

Im under no illusion that Veterinary Medicine isnt perfect, but my god, for any lay person watching that tonight i dont blame them for being concerned and truly horrified.

As for the blood donation part of the programme! We have tried so hard over the last 2 years to make owners and pets as comfortable as possible with this procedure.My god, im horrified any vet could have so little regard for the effort both pets and their owners go to to provide this life saving service. Im disgusted! Honest to god DISGUSTED!

To end the programme with the theme tune for All Creatures Great And Small just adds insult to injury!!:mad::mad::mad::mad:

morganafay

I'm not watching it but we had one bad experience with a vet, who really shouldn't treat small animals, should stick to large animals really! I've heard so many bad stories about him.

We took two cats to be spayed (this was about 15 years ago). The vet made a huuuge incision, and when he sewed them up he just bunched up all the skin and sewed across it so the skin died off and fell off. They lost one cat, but it came back. The other cat got an infection and nearly died, and they treated her, but then tried to charge us for treating her, when it was clearly their fault.

My friend takes her dog there because it's right next door to her, but she said the small animal consultation room is filthy and covered in hairs.

We never went there again. We found a new vet, who spayed cats just two years later and they only had 2-3 stitches, not a huge incision, and no dead skin falling off.

Graces7

We have no TV... but am not surprised at anything re vets, or drs...

And a good vet nurse is worth far more than any vet.

So many do not like cats.. still do not have a small animal vet we can trust.

Still we only get the vets or drs we tolerate....

suraheg

Hey guys,

Yeah I watched it.. I'm a qualified registered Vet Nurse (as of June), and was totally shocked at some of the things that were shown on the show. Especially the 'trainee' waving the anaesthetised cat around! She wasn't hurting him because he was unconcious but it was still REALLY unethical.

Over in the UK , unlike Ireland, there are no regulations regarding vet nurses. Here our profession was a few years back written into legislation and we are considered, now, a 'profession'. Whereas in the UK, like the presenter said, there hasn't been a veterinary medicine legislation update since the 60's. People, and VN's, have been calling for it for a long time. It would mean that people they were calling 'trainee's' in the show wouldn't be able to work as a 'trainee' unless they were in an accredited training program.

I thought it was good, it highlighted a lot of issues for VN's. Sometimes animals get very stressed and you do need to be strong and restrain them properly which some people might not like to see, but the way they were handling the animals on the show (the dog getting the catheter inserted) was way out of hand. Especially that vet swinging the cat around while injecting him! I have never seen any of that stuff happen in the 4 vets practices i've worked in.

And as soon as that farm vet came on I was waiting to see if they showed him in practice with small animals! That would be good watching!!

sassychick

Sorry im lost what was this programme about and when was it on ??

Graces7

morganafay wrote: »

I'm not watching it but we had one bad experience with a vet, who really shouldn't treat small animals, should stick to large animals really! I've heard so many bad stories about him.

We took two cats to be spayed (this was about 15 years ago). The vet made a huuuge incision, and when he sewed them up he just bunched up all the skin and sewed across it so the skin died off and fell off. They lost one cat, but it came back. The other cat got an infection and nearly died, and they treated her, but then tried to charge us for treating her, when it was clearly their fault.

My friend takes her dog there because it's right next door to her, but she said the small animal consultation room is filthy and covered in hairs.

We never went there again. We found a new vet, who spayed cats just two years later and they only had 2-3 stitches, not a huge incision, and no dead skin falling off.

She still takes her dog there? :eek: She cannot be a good owner to risk that.NO WAY would I take mine to a place like that.

suraheg

Tonight at 9pm, Panorama..
Its about a vet chain called Medivet in the uk

anniehoo

We cant get BBC iPlayer here and cant see anything on YT yet.

muppet_man

suraheg wrote: »

Over in the UK , unlike Ireland, there are no regulations regarding vet nurses. Here our profession was a few years back written into legislation and we are considered, now, a 'profession'. Whereas in the UK, like the presenter said, there hasn't been a veterinary medicine legislation update since the 60's. People, and VN's, have been calling for it for a long time. It would mean that people they were calling 'trainee's' in the show wouldn't be able to work as a 'trainee' unless they were in an accredited training program.

Good to know that at least Ireland is not lagging behind in every everything!!
But would you mind clarifying the Irish situation?
Irish VNs are fully trained & certified VNs and "trainee's" as describe in the program, in Ireland would have to be enrolled in a recognized training programme / institute??

morganafay

Graces7 wrote: »

She still takes her dog there? :eek: She cannot be a good owner to risk that.NO WAY would I take mine to a place like that.

It's her parents' dog, I'm not sure if they still go there, but did up until recently anyway. I don't think she would if it was her own dog, cos she didn't seem too impressed by them.

Miss Lockhart

muppet_man wrote: »

Irish VNs are fully trained & certified VNs and "trainee's" as describe in the program, in Ireland would have to be enrolled in a recognized training programme / institute??

Unfortunately this is not yet the case.

The Veterinary Practice Act 2005 legislated for the establishment of a Register of Veterinary Nurses and defined the procedures that could be carried out only by qualified, registered vet nurses. This register came in to force on 1 January 2008.

However, vet "nurses" who were practising on 27 October 2004, and who continued to practise in a full time capacity under supervision of a vet surgeon until establishment day, were given time to become properly qualified - they were allowed to apply for provisional registration. They have until 31 December 2012 to become fully qualified.

So, there are people still working as vet nurses who are not fully qualified and not enrolled in any programme of study. I know of several.

Wisco

muppet_man wrote: »

Irish VNs are fully trained & certified VNs and "trainee's" as describe in the program, in Ireland would have to be enrolled in a recognized training programme / institute??

Yes, they would have to be in an programme accredited by the Veterinary Council of Ireland. There are currently 3 programmes which have full accreditation (UCD, Athlone, St Johns- Cork) and there are a couple new ones which probably will be accredited but haven't been around long enough to have any grads yet (think they're DKIT, Letterkenny, might be missing some).
It is now against the law and an offence to claim to be a VN in Ireland if you're not a grad of a recognized programme. Qualified nurses are listed on a register with the VCI. This will help to keep the standard up because, like vets, nurses can now be found guilty of malpractice and be struck off the register for serious offences.

Wisco

Miss Lockhart wrote: »

So, there are people still working as vet nurses who are not fully qualified and not enrolled in any programme of study. I know of several.

Sorry didn't read this bit before my last post! Fortunately the provisional register ends in a couple years and I certainly hope these people and the practices that employ them will be reported to the VCI if they don't gain the proper qualifications. I do think that most people who are classed as 'trainees' here are enrolled as students. It's the people who've been in practice for ages and claim to be VNs without the qualification that I really have a problem with.

Discodog

I have worked alongside vets & acted as a totally unqualified surgery nurse on many occasions (no other choice at 3am !). I have also successfully sued a Vet in the UK - my own Vet knows this !. To me the program was a mixed bag. Some issues were over sensationalised such as the Vet who submitted a multiple claim. Yes the Vet stood to make more money but it also benefited the patient in that it freed up more funds for future treatment.

Some of the disrespect shown to patients was distressing but I have occasionally been reduced to profanities & so has the Vet especially when I was sutured by accident. The really bad issues were the botched attempts at inserting a catheter, airway & attempted anaesthesia especially as experienced staff were looking on.

But this can be a difficult area in that one has to encourage responsibility & self sufficiency in staff - this applies to any job. What made this worse was that the staff were not sufficiently qualified to be attempting the work in the first place.

I watched a student VN trying to carry out a procedure on one of my dogs. She was having problems but, as the dog was not distressed, the Vet & I encouraged her to continue. There has to come a time when someone makes their own decisions.

The worrying thing for the RCVS was that, whilst there were not many examples, they were all the result of only one covert reporter. So the mind boggles at what might be the real extent of the problem.

I think that it is easy to spot a good Vet. I prefer smaller practices where you get to know the staff. My Vet opened locally a couple of years ago. Yes I did check her out online & I made a couple of calls. I knew that she was good when I got a phone call at 9pm asking how my dog was - she had been treated for a skin problem. My then very nervous & previously abused Greyhound soon got into the habit of rushing into the Vets wagging her tail & putting her paws on the counter to mug a treat.

Another good guide is how they react with the animal & more importantly how the animal reacts with them. My Vet will greet a new patient by crouching down to their level. You can see that she is an animal lover & has the touch.

I also & this may sound prejudice, prefer younger Vets ie say under 35 as I suspect that they are more familiar with modern methods. I also prefer a Vet that does mostly small companion rather than farm.

One key feature of the program was that Medivet were huge & staff clearly moved around - the reporter worked at several practises. This may be good for their experience but it not so good if you are the customer as we & our pets like familiar faces.

lrushe

Just watched that programme ( had it SKY+), makes me appreciate my vet all the more. I did work experience with him before he was my vet so I have 'behind the scenes' insight into how he runs his pratice, wouldn't bring my animals anywhere else, except my tortoise as he goes to a reptile vet.

Orla K

If anyone knows when this is on again will you post it up here. I did look at a video on youtube but it was far too annoying as well as the writing on the bottom of what the people were saying the person that posted the video had those annoying speech bubbles and to be honest some of the things she was saying in them were obvious and or stupid.

With the large animal vets, obviously they're not all bad. Where I'm living it's a town and there's two vets here one has three different pratices in different towns, the other is smaller. The larger one does large animals, not too sure about the other. But both are good, when Stubbs was dieing and the bigger vets couldn't figure it out it went to the owner of the place, who is normally the surgeon and doesn't meet pet owners. I had the nurses ringing me up to see how was she getting on with taking her tablets, and when she stayed overnight the vet that gave her food/checked up on her stayed with her until she ate it(bad habit I gave her when she was feeling sick, she wouldn't eat unless she was being petted) in the end it was the boss that put her to sleep and he was really nice about it. I couldn't fault it. He even tried to keep the cost down and let me pay it off bit by bit.

In the other vet there's a brilliant vet there I think she's from Spain but she's the kind of person that all the cats like, even grumpy Oscar and my grannys Mick(who attacked a priest for petting him:pac:)

morganafay

Orla K wrote: »

With the large animal vets, obviously they're not all bad.

I definitely agree. My vet treats large and small animals, and she's brilliant. She obviously loves animals, she's really nice and she remembers all my animals and is nice to them. She treated my guinea pigs and she didn't treat them like they were less important than dogs or cats. And she doesn't charge much either. She neuters cats really cheaply because she said she'd prefer to lose out on money than for kittens to be drowned, because a lot of people in the country wouldn't pay a lot to have a cat neutered.

I've gone to large animal vets that I didn't really like. Nothing wrong with them, but they just had a different attitude to animals, especially cats. And I'm not really a countryish person, so I don't really get on that well with them . . . they made fun of my purple leopard print wellies . . .