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Thea was at the vets this morning.

I am wondering if they want to avoid admitting in writing that they committed a near miss. I am not sure what ombudsman route vets have or how it affects vets and the practice they work for. This is an interesting case. It is rather cowardly of them to fail to reply. The next thing would be to ask for a meeting with the practice manager, but that could be just as frustrating. Because you are a nice person, and most pet owners are kind, and because you like to be reasonable, you are unlikely to go the whole nine yards and report them. If Thea had been killed by the mistake it might be different though. I wonder what other practices would do. This one might be a bit of a maverick. The intense commercialisation of pet vet practices is frightening. The problem of proving that the near miss happened might be difficult unless they refer to it. They have all the records unless you have an itemised receipt. I suppose it is down to how good the vet or vets are. Finding a good vet is very difficult these days.
 
From our point of view, it is so valuable that you shared this experience as it makes us aware that there are routine medications that can kill guinea pigs if given in error and a visit to the vet could end in tragedy just because of an error like this one.
 
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much recourse for pets owners who make complaints, no matter how bad the situation. I follow someone on TikTok who sent her cat in for a heart scan, she was mixed up with another cat and ended up having surgery to remove the ball join on one of her hips. She complained as high up as she could and nothing was done. All she got was the offer of free care for the cat as she healed but understandably she declined and sought treatment at a different practice, which they refused any financial support towards.

Hopefully there's just been a communication delay over Easter and you'll hear something soon though, fingers crossed.
 
Betsy said:
Still no word from the vet..... I doubt I'll even get a reply.
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Send another email, in case the first has been overlooked, then if there’s still no reply you can take it further.
Are they part of a group of vets ?
If so you could always write to or email the person in overall charge if there’s still no reply after a week.
 
Eriathwen said:
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much recourse for pets owners who make complaints, no matter how bad the situation. I follow someone on TikTok who sent her cat in for a heart scan, she was mixed up with another cat and ended up having surgery to remove the ball join on one of her hips. She complained as high up as she could and nothing was done. All she got was the offer of free care for the cat as she healed but understandably she declined and sought treatment at a different practice, which they refused any financial support towards.

Hopefully there's just been a communication delay over Easter and you'll hear something soon though, fingers crossed.
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Quite horrific.
 
CTWC said:
I would contact them again and demand an explanation or at the least what changes have been made to stop it happening again 😥
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It's horrible but there is no guarantee of good care, it is up to the pet owner to be informed if you have so called exotic pets. Dogs and cats (and rabbits to some extent) dominate pet health care in the local run of the mill vet practices and exotic pet keepers get the scraps for a high price, if the vets will even see them. If you are lucky to find an exotic vet who has kept your pet species themselves or has seen lots of guinea pig patients you are very fortunate. It is just money talking 😞 💸
 
We've complained about a vet before. Their treatment of our very ill piggy who was there for euthanasia was unacceptable.
Turns out she'd been in trouble before for falsifying records.
All that came of it? They sent her on a "compassion at euthanasia" course. Not enough after what happened 😡
 
It’s shocking how some Vet practices are …..sadly in all walks of like ( medicine ,dentistry, podiatry and everything ) people can’t accept they made a mistake …. If they just own it and say’ sorry I’ll learn from this’ I’d respect people more !
 
Wheekallweek said:
We've complained about a vet before. Their treatment of our very ill piggy who was there for euthanasia was unacceptable.
Turns out she'd been in trouble before for falsifying records.
All that came of it? They sent her on a "compassion at euthanasia" course. Not enough after what happened 😡
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That is something I worry about. You badly want your pet to have a peaceful passing. It seems awful that such a course could ever be required 😢
 
Thea has had no more discharge, is maintaining her weight and is as feisty ever. She is a very chatty girl and likes to tell me all about the day before in the run and night in the hutch with her friends at morning cuddle time.

I had to clean out the hutch and the run today which is earlier than usual as there was a very strong smell of something a bit like boar pong (I have no boars). I think it's because of all the medication Thea's been on. I don't usually smell it. Normally the garage just smells pleasantly of hay and guinea pigs.
 
I think you might be better off starting with a new practice, this doesn't sound very good at all. Perhaps for dogs only, which is a pity. Sometimes this is how you find out that they aren't very good for what you need. Vets come from all sorts of backgrounds and finding a vet who really cares about and is interested in small animals aka exotics can be quite difficult. It's like a lot of female health issues, there is just no investment and little interest in them although half the population suffers from them 🙁 Vets are usually humane and kind but if they can't relate to your species, it's worth looking elsewhere 😔
 
I have registered with another Practice. It's family run and the vet there has over 25 years experience. They see a lot of guinea pigs according to the Receptionist. She asked me why I wanted to change Practices and I told her that my vet had given my guinea pig Penicillin and it was me that noticed and pointed it out to them. Her reply was "Oh that's not good". So even the Receptionist knew.
 
I’m sorry you’ve still had no response but I’m glad you have changed practices. I did the same thing a few years ago after all the good vets left and one of the new ones suggested I had Edward pts if his penis didn’t retract! Thankfully the vet nurse cleaned him up (it turned out his penis had a build up of smegma and debris causing it to be hanging out his foreskin) and it retracted. It was the final straw of a few mistakes which I gave them the benefit of the doubt but loyalty meant nothing to them.

I feel a lot more reassured at my current vets and they were excellent when I had my guinea pigs. I rarely go these days now I have just the two cats but they always send me a Christmas card and I take them chocolates.

I’m glad Thea is doing well ❤️
 
Claire W said:
I’m sorry you’ve still had no response but I’m glad you have changed practices. I did the same thing a few years ago after all the good vets left and one of the new ones suggested I had Edward pts if his penis didn’t retract! Thankfully the vet nurse cleaned him up (it turned out his penis had a build up of smegma and debris causing it to be hanging out his foreskin) and it retracted. It was the final straw of a few mistakes which I gave them the benefit of the doubt but loyalty meant nothing to them.

I feel a lot more reassured at my current vets and they were excellent when I had my guinea pigs. I rarely go these days now I have just the two cats but they always send me a Christmas card and I take them chocolates.

I’m glad Thea is doing well ❤️
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Hectic, thank goodness for the vet nurse. Yes, you made the right decision.
 
Still no acknowledgement of my email, my friend who is Practice Manager at another vets said that is very bad on their part. I have just drafted a letter to someone who has significant control (holds over 75% of shares) which I will perfect over the next few days and send Special Delivery so that I know they'll get it the next day. My friend said to phone/email them to chivvy them up a bit, but I've decided not to do that as I think that by ignoring the problem they hope it will go away. It won't. What they did was very serious and may well have led to Thea dying a horrible and painful death and it would have been their fault.
 
This is the letter I sent this morning by Special Delivery. The recipient will receive it by 1pm on Tuesday.



I am writing to you as you are listed as having significant control at ***** on The Companies House website.

I sent a Formal Complaint to their Practice Manager via email on 18 April regarding the treatment of my elderly and vulnerable guinea pig Thea. The Practice Manager would have received it on 22 April because of the Easter Break. So far, I haven’t had an acknowledgement or had any contact from her whatsoever. I enclose a copy of the email for you.

I look forward to hearing back from you shortly.



I just want my formal complaint acknowledged, an official apology, an assurance that this won't happen again to anyone else (and their pets) and my fees reimbursed. After all, if a human had been given medicine they were allergic to and had killled them, there would be serious consequences. Why should a pet be treated differently?
 
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