Jermyzy
09-11-2011, 11:00 PM
Sorry for long post...but I'm really scared/frustrated at this point...need to vent
So my 12 year old Bichon has been starting to get a little hard of hearing as of late (can't hear people coming home, etc), but can still hear you when you talk to him. So last week my mom brought him to the vet to see if there was some earwax buildup. Unfortunately the regular vet is not there any more, and there was a replacement vet. The new vet took a look in his ears and said there was a buildup of earwax and offered to syringe it out for my dog. He took my dog to the back, and after 15 minutes came out and told my mom that the dog was resisting and he would need to use a sedative. My mom told him that my dog cannot have certain sedatives (as indicated in the chart by previous vet), to which the vet replied "yes yes, I know which ones he can't have". After another 15-20 minutes, he comes out with my dog and says that he flushed out the ears and he's fine now.
So my mom takes my dog back to the car where he is still sedated and sleeps in the car. When she gets home, she notices something is wrong as my dog cannot stand and is acting very strange. She calls up the vet, and he explains it's completely normal and will clear up in an hour. 4 hours later, he still can't stand, so my mom calls the vet again and asks him which sedative he used. Turns out he used acepromazine, which is one of the sedatives my dog can't have. When my mom tells him this is one of the drugs listed in his chart that he can't have, the vet tells her he only used a small dose and it's okay and if we want, we can bring him back to the vet (they were closing in 15 minutes and they are located in Delta, no way my mom would get there in time). We end up talking to my breeder who suggests we monitor his heart rate, which turned out to be 40 bpm which is significant bradycardia, and once the drug eventually cleared he should be okay. Luckily, after 24 hours, he recovers from this. For those 24 hours, he was like mush. Couldn't walk, we had to feed him a liquid diet with a syringe as he wouldn't eat/drink, and had little muscle tone. This mistake already pissed me off, as it was potentially fatal and the vet didn't take any responsibility for it and tried to tell us it was okay (my breeder lost one of her dogs when another vet mistakenly used this sedative)
So on Friday I went to pick up my dog to take him up to Whistler for the weekend. When I get to the house, he doesn't hear me open the front door, which is normal. I see him on top of the stairs, usually when I start climbing the stairs, he hears me. But as I climb the stairs and call his name, I get no response. Even when I'm right next to him, I get no response. Only when I walk in front of him, he sees me and acts a little startled before coming to greet me. When we finally get up to Whistler (he slept on the way up), that's when I realize he can't hear me at all. Usually when I tell him we're going for a walk, he gets all riled up and will start barking like crazy. But now, when I tell him we're going for a walk, he just looks at me with a blank expression. I try getting him to do tricks with verbal commands and he just looks at me. If I use hand signals, he will do the tricks. When he is resting on the couch, and I yell his name, he doesn't even respond. If I talk right into his ear, it appears he can hear something, but still can't make out what I'm saying (e.g. when I tell him we're going for a walk right into his ear, he perks up a bit as if he hears something, but can't make out what I'm saying). He has gone completely deaf...I talked to my breeder again and she says it's unusual for a dog to have sudden hearing loss, she's hoping that the vet just sucks and instead of flushing out his ear wax, just made it worse...but both ears...? We have an appointment with another vet later this week to get him checked out, and hopefully it's just the earwax plugging up both ears...but I'm so scared he has gone completely deaf...my poor dog is so insecure right now since he can't hear anything, he is constantly following us around.
Thanks for reading, I just had to vent my anger/frustation and hopefully some of you will have some advice too? :okay:
So my 12 year old Bichon has been starting to get a little hard of hearing as of late (can't hear people coming home, etc), but can still hear you when you talk to him. So last week my mom brought him to the vet to see if there was some earwax buildup. Unfortunately the regular vet is not there any more, and there was a replacement vet. The new vet took a look in his ears and said there was a buildup of earwax and offered to syringe it out for my dog. He took my dog to the back, and after 15 minutes came out and told my mom that the dog was resisting and he would need to use a sedative. My mom told him that my dog cannot have certain sedatives (as indicated in the chart by previous vet), to which the vet replied "yes yes, I know which ones he can't have". After another 15-20 minutes, he comes out with my dog and says that he flushed out the ears and he's fine now.
So my mom takes my dog back to the car where he is still sedated and sleeps in the car. When she gets home, she notices something is wrong as my dog cannot stand and is acting very strange. She calls up the vet, and he explains it's completely normal and will clear up in an hour. 4 hours later, he still can't stand, so my mom calls the vet again and asks him which sedative he used. Turns out he used acepromazine, which is one of the sedatives my dog can't have. When my mom tells him this is one of the drugs listed in his chart that he can't have, the vet tells her he only used a small dose and it's okay and if we want, we can bring him back to the vet (they were closing in 15 minutes and they are located in Delta, no way my mom would get there in time). We end up talking to my breeder who suggests we monitor his heart rate, which turned out to be 40 bpm which is significant bradycardia, and once the drug eventually cleared he should be okay. Luckily, after 24 hours, he recovers from this. For those 24 hours, he was like mush. Couldn't walk, we had to feed him a liquid diet with a syringe as he wouldn't eat/drink, and had little muscle tone. This mistake already pissed me off, as it was potentially fatal and the vet didn't take any responsibility for it and tried to tell us it was okay (my breeder lost one of her dogs when another vet mistakenly used this sedative)
So on Friday I went to pick up my dog to take him up to Whistler for the weekend. When I get to the house, he doesn't hear me open the front door, which is normal. I see him on top of the stairs, usually when I start climbing the stairs, he hears me. But as I climb the stairs and call his name, I get no response. Even when I'm right next to him, I get no response. Only when I walk in front of him, he sees me and acts a little startled before coming to greet me. When we finally get up to Whistler (he slept on the way up), that's when I realize he can't hear me at all. Usually when I tell him we're going for a walk, he gets all riled up and will start barking like crazy. But now, when I tell him we're going for a walk, he just looks at me with a blank expression. I try getting him to do tricks with verbal commands and he just looks at me. If I use hand signals, he will do the tricks. When he is resting on the couch, and I yell his name, he doesn't even respond. If I talk right into his ear, it appears he can hear something, but still can't make out what I'm saying (e.g. when I tell him we're going for a walk right into his ear, he perks up a bit as if he hears something, but can't make out what I'm saying). He has gone completely deaf...I talked to my breeder again and she says it's unusual for a dog to have sudden hearing loss, she's hoping that the vet just sucks and instead of flushing out his ear wax, just made it worse...but both ears...? We have an appointment with another vet later this week to get him checked out, and hopefully it's just the earwax plugging up both ears...but I'm so scared he has gone completely deaf...my poor dog is so insecure right now since he can't hear anything, he is constantly following us around.
Thanks for reading, I just had to vent my anger/frustation and hopefully some of you will have some advice too? :okay: