Tear ducts

[Sorrel]

It’s been two weeks since Lily’s dental, and she’s back to normal. Before the op, she had blocked tear ducts because of the teeth pressing on the duct (as it turns out, they tried flushing it three times but couldn’t; it was the teeth all along meaning they couldn’t flush). After her op they finally managed to flush them through. Or, that’s what the first vet said.

So, when we picked her up, the vet said they managed to flush them, with difficulty, but they flushed them. No more was said. It seemed like the end of story. We brought her back to the vets every day two days after… both of the vets she saw didn’t mention anything about the tear ducts. But five days after the op, the fourth vet said she needed her tear ducts flushed again. We were confused as her eyes looked fine and when we picked her up, they said they’d been flushed – and she said it was because they had only been partially flushed. Weird, you’d think the other three vets she saw the days before would’ve mentioned that?

I don’t like this particular vet. She has no compassion, she’s rather rough-handed with Lily, and she’s rather unfriendly and blunt. I’m wondering if she’s read the wrong file, one of the three times before where they couldn’t flush them properly… or if she’s just sucking more money out of us. I know, that sounds really judgemental, but we’ve had this kind of vet before; about three years ago when Lily started having teeth problems, a similar-acting vet (a different company back then) suggested both a mouth AND full body x-ray along with two other expensive sounding tests… for a single spur. These xrays in total, which would’ve come to £1000+, might I add. And then the next day another one said that was ridiculous and totally unnecessary.

What should I do? Her eyes look fine, no sign of gunk two weeks on… I’m wondering if a mistake was made, because I would’ve thought that when we picked her up the hours after her op, that the first vet, along with the second and third ones, one of them would have mentioned her needing them flushed again. Should I ring up the vets to ask them to check the files in case there’s been a mistake or take her to have them flushed again?

[Bam]

Hm. I’d ring them up and ask if there’s a mistake, and if there’s no mistake, tell them that her eyes look perfectly fine now and ask why a flush is really necessary. As a pet owner you should take care never to subject your animal to unnecessary procedures, so it’s not impolite to ask why sth needs doing. If a vet gets annoyed with you for asking, find another vet.

I’d actually be inclined to start looking for another vet. You don’t seem to really trust this vet, and that always leaves you with the feeling that your bun isn’t getting the best possible care. It might just be a feeling, but its part of a vet’s job to make a convincing professional impression on the pet owner.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Ditto everything said by Bam.

My Bindi has chronic weepy eyes unfortunately and usually gets them flushed when he gets his dental but they start weeping again the next day. Doesn’t make sense for a vet to flush them if there are no physical symptoms.

[Sorrel]

@ thank you Bam, think I’ll ring them up tomorrow and ask, and if they don’t insist she needs it, I’ll just see how she goes. The vets stress her out quite a bit (when she was spayed a few years back it didn’t exactly go well, since then she’s hated the vets and the car doesn’t help), so I’d love to avoid unnecessary stress for nothing. At the one we take Lily to the vets are actually really nice, it’s just this one individual woman who’s a bit dodgy. The vet I’m sent to is random depending on who’s available, most times I get someone else, but occasionally, it’s her. :/

@Littlepuffytail aw, poor baby. Hopefully it doesn’t bother him too much!

[Author]

Messages