Informed consent and partnering with your vet: Gordon’s Story
Just like us humans, what goes into a pet’s body matters. Food, supplements, vaccines, and medications all have effects on the body. And, just like us humans, our pets’ body systems are interconnected. Medication for a procedure on one part of the body can have effects on other parts. Ensuring that you as the pet parent are fully informed about recommendations given, their benefits and potential side effects are vital. Working closely with your veterinarian to fully understand the information will help you make the best decisions for your furry one’s health. A common term for fully understanding a doctor’s recommendations is called informed consent; which should ideally occur before many procedures are conducted.
We are grateful for conscientious pet parents like Brittany, who love their pets and understand the importance of being fully informed and working in partnership with their veterinarian. Today’s blog is written by Brittany to tell Gordon’s story. Take it away, Brittany:
“Oh man, this one is very easy to write; very long read but gives me all the feelings. My husband and I currently live in Austin, TX and have 3 cats – Gordon, Bill and Ichabod (our recent adoption).
To start, let me take you back to October 2017. I just turned 30 and we bought our first home (well, technically a dirt lot). Within the same week, our oldest cat Bentley died very unexpectedly from a strange freak accident. At 10 years old, I had never even imagined losing him so soon. We immediately called our old vet, and they were amazing at giving us immediate service and options to cremate him. They were very kind and asked if they could look to see what happened by looking at him. I explained the situation and they were able to give me some logical sense of what ‘could’ have happened.
Being immensely heartbroken, it was difficult for me to focus on anything else. I felt like I could have done something to change the course of his future and constantly beat myself about it. After a few weeks had passed, we started to find a sense of normalcy with building the new house and taking care of our other two boys, Bill and Gordon.
Fast forward to the week of Christmas, Gordon had a vet appointment with a different vet. (Yes, we had two different vets for 3 cats) It was his bi-annual check-up, and we scheduled surgery to get his teeth cleaned. We dropped him off on December 23 rd at 7 am. The veterinarian reached out to us around 10:30am stating Gordon was still under anesthesia and was irritated by two teeth. The veterinarian advised that they would like to extract both teeth. My husband and I absolutely said yes, but little did we know what we just signed up for.
I picked up Gordon around 5pm that evening and was instructed to provide him pain medication every 2 hours for the teeth pain. Based on the recommendation, we feed him half of what we normally feed him due to coming off sedation. For the next few days, we started to notice that Gordon had no desire to eat longer than 10 seconds. He was sitting in tub/sinks waiting for the water to turn on and started to see small character/behavior changes. We called and scheduled an immediate appointment for January 2nd . The veterinarian had stated he had some mouth canker sores and felt bad about it. They sent us home with more pain meds for him.
On January 4th , I called the vet again and was worried because Gordon was still not eating and losing a lot of weight. My husband dropped him off at 8 am and was presented with the worst news by 10 am. Gordon was currently facing kidney failure.
This was horrible to hear, but even worse to hear it from my husband. My husband didn’t care what we had to do, we were going to save Gordon. I had no doubt in mind we would do whatever it took to help him. The vet asked a few questions about Lysol and Antifreeze being around the house. ABSOLUTELY NOT, I responded. They ordered an ultrasound and then begin to explain how they felt ‘it might have been the Meloxicam’ that was given to him after surgery.
Insert ‘What. The. F. moment.
They briefly explained it to us over the phone and advised he needs to go to an urgent care clinic tonight when I pick him up. They called ahead for us and ensured they were ready to keep him on fluids over the week. My blood was boiling by the time I got to pick him up, as I was handed Gordon in his carrier with the IV still attached to his leg. As the vet reached over and said “I am so sorry,” I began to think there was no freaking way we are going to lose Gordon to some stupid drug that we later found out that was never disclosed to us as an “off labeled drug” for cats nor was it disclosed being given to him at all when we picked him up in December.
I immediately drove him over the emergency clinic and met with a wonderful and caring vet. She set great expectations and explicitly went over what would and would not happen. Amazing news came in on Sunday morning after Gordon had been there all weekend. His kidney levels had returned to normal. Of course, there was a “but” added on. On Sunday afternoon we took him home, but he still was not eating a whole lot which the ER doctor gave us a heads up on.
At this time, I was so upset and just wanted Gordon to eat. The next morning, I called Dr. Lassin’s office. The assistant was so understanding and kind with me on the phone crying to explain the situation. She told me that she had suggested Dr. Lassin to best fit what Gordon and I needed. Not only was she amazingly kind, but I spent 20 minutes on the phone with her going over basics like what type of food I was feeding him, what type of litter I was using, shot records/x-ray’s. She was just genuinely interested in helping us identify the root of the problem.
After meeting with Dr. Lassin, we had identified that the gums were not healing around one of the teeth that was “extracted” because HIS TEETH WERE DRILLED DOWN TO THE GUM LINE AND ONE NOT FULLY DRILLED. IT WAS LEFT ABOVE THE GUM. On top of that, the old vet had no X-rays because they DON’T USE THEM NOR DO THEY HAVE ONE FOR TEETH EXTRACTIONS. I pinky promise, I am not yelling, but just stressing the big picture.
Our first option was to try to get the gums to heal on their own because he was so worried about putting Gordon under because of his kidneys. He told us about this antibiotic shot that could work so well, but it could have a negative affect on him. My husband and I were at the mercy of natural selection at this point and we decided to do it. I advised Dr. Lassin about my oldest cat passing just a few months prior and truly could not lose our Gordon baby at 6 years old. He felt for me, he understood all the grief and emotions I was running through all this time. After two weeks, one of the gums healed and the other one did not. Our last option was surgery. Dr. Lassin reassured us that he would be the only one doing his surgery and would make sure to do an extra bag of fluids prior and after surgery. He truly understood how important this was to us. Dr. Lassin got some blood work from Gordon completed to make sure his kidneys were in good shape to take the surgery in the first place.
We brought him in together, took us back to the room, sat us down and went over every step of how today was going to look. Called us once before he went under and once after to let us know how the surgery went. He mentioned that there were a few other teeth that were questionable but didn’t want to put any more stress on Gordon, so he addressed the 2 only that were extracted. He wanted to make sure to put Gordon on another bag of fluids and schedule a check up with blood work to make sure his kidneys are cool as a cucumber after going under again.
I picked him up and was greeted by him with all the notes and FREAKING X-RAY’s of his teeth. We could only conclude what the other vet had done, but it was safe to say the teeth were NOT extracted.
After MONTHS of this nightmare, it has pretty much been a happily-ever-after for Gordon, Bill and our newest crew member, Ichabod. We immediately made the switch over to Dr. Lassin and we could not be happier. I mean, when he moved his practice we were ready to put our house up for sale to find out where he was moving.
I wish I had moved to an integrative vet sooner. Dr. Lassin not only listens, but he has a high give-a-shit factor; which we will never take for granted. It is the details of our visit that I love when I go: understanding weight, behavior changes, and answering questions about ‘what should I do if’. It is proactive, versus reactive.
I am very extremely grateful for him and his staff at Roots Integrative pet care because I don’t think we could have made it through the rest of that year without him. After switching, I had thoughts about what if Bentley went to see him about his weight before the accident, or what if Gordon had just his teeth cleaned and/or extracted correctly with him the first time around. No matter what, I am very happy to know there are these wonderful folks out there. They look at the whole picture. No one is ever happy when you're told ‘this is how we have always done it’. Instead, an integrative doctor starts to ask the real questions of identifying how supplements can help, what is your environment like, are you or your husband home a lot, and how often and what are they fed. One size does NOT fit all when it comes to your loved one, your best friend, your sidekick.”
