Veterinarians Have No Legal Obligation to Accept Your Pet in an Emergency.
A veterinarian is not legally required to provide treatment to an animal in an emergency, and I wish I had known this before rushing to the two nearest vets. The vet we ultimately went to was in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, my cat, who belonged to my late step-father and was also the best friend of my dog Buster, passed away at the vet from congestive heart failure, which we initially mistook for choking.
I have never encountered a pet emergency before. My lack of experience left me feeling bewildered and unsure of how to handle the situation. I realized that I had made several mistakes, both prior to the emergency and during the crisis itself. This occurred half an hour before the veterinary clinics were open. I don’t live near any pet clinics that operate during after-hours or early hours.
Listening to the distressing cries of your pet struggling to breathe and having no one to call or go to is an incredibly distressing experience, and you will not operate as you normally would. It was later discovered that this was due to a genetic predisposition in certain cats, leading to a variety of heart failure conditions which in this case was Congestive Heart Failure, and unfortunately, their condition deteriorated rapidly with almost non-existent signs.
The Human Health Care System is bad, but the Pet Health Care System feels like an unregulated Hardy’s operating out of a van:
This was written with bitter feelings, but with reason, I did more investigation into why this happens, and I have revised this section:
While veterinarians often claim that their motivation is not solely financial, the actions of two veterinarians seemed to contradict this: two vet clinics nearby in person, and four over the phone denied treatment despite my cat’s desperate struggle to breathe, her cries between trying catch her breath. This led to a frantic search for help.
Veterinarians have the right to decline emergency treatment for pets, even if they are your primary vet. According to the law, they are legally protected and can refuse treatment if they are not equipped to handle the specific emergency or if they are simply unavailable at the time. A stark reminder that lawmakers do not always make the law to do the right thing, nor to make something viable, especially when it comes to our pets in the eyes of Congress.
I do not believe that the solution is to force the Vet to treat your pet. Instead, a better approach would be to implement a system where citizens are taxed $0.17 per month. This money would be pooled together to help cover costs and provide a deposit to the vet. Then include to the vet to treat the pet or find another close by facility that can.
The reason they decline to help you is because, according to veterinarians and staff in online forums since no statistics could be found, if a pet dies, the bill is almost never paid. When speaking with these people, none of them mentioned money; they simply said no. But when one finally agreed to see her on short notice, they were located nearly two hours away in my home town.
Upon the time we reached them, my cat’s movements had become limited.
she was cold and lips were blue. She spent a total of 8 hours at the veterinarian’s office, undergoing various tests and treatments. The vet kept us updated on the that were being used, and treatments because she had not shown any improvement with the ones tried so far.
I was concerned about heartworm, (spread through mosquitoes and claims the lives of over a million pets annually,) or the possibility that she might have ingested something poisonous. I don’t use poison for mice as I consider it extremely inhumane, but my neighbors might — one can never be sure. She didn’t show any symptoms or signs but they were going to run additional tests by request, and then the vet said that this happens quite often, especially in Orange Cats in our area.
Ultimately, the vet recommended euthanasia, as the condition was not treatable in the long term because she had gotten ill so fast and was not able to be treated immediately; none of the treatments they tried improved her condition at all, and if we did not euthanize her, she would have suffered greatly in the next 48 hours before succumbing to death.
She was held in arms, and being whispered words of gratitude for the joy she had brought; telling her everything was going to be okay. Her eyes stayed shut until the very end. When the vet gave her the second injection, her weak yet labored breathing stopped, ultimately putting an end to her short-lived torment.
The warning signs of her deteriorating health were subtle.
Especially since she was only 4 years old, and despite being an active cat who leaped, ran, hunted, and climbed tall trees constantly; I did notice a couple times while she slept: a slight breathing rasp with the month of her passing. Initially, I dismissed it as a common cold, because she was very fit and young.
During this period, she remained remarkably active and did not act out of normality, except for that morning when she started screaming/yelping in the living room and suddenly couldn’t breath.
When the vet conducted tests, no underlying issues were found. It was later revealed that a large portion of every cat population carries a genetic predisposition, and in this case, the genetic factor was more commonly found in Orange Cats, which can lead to various problems related to Cardiomyopathy.
The likelihood of a cat having a Cardiomyopathy issue can range from as low as 1% to as high as 40%, depending on factors such as the region, breed, and characteristics of the cat.
Phoebus (bright, of the sun) would have been four years old this year.
Congestive Heart Failure occurs when the heart is unable to pump blood effectively, leading to the accumulation of fluid in the lungs and other body tissues. In this case, considering her young age, assuming that she couldn’t have any health issues, and not being aware of the many issues with the cat population was a mistake.
