Shocking experience with the PDSA

This weekend I visited one of my best friends in Bradford. She only works part time as she has two young children and has 3 cats and a dog. One of her new kittens had been quite ill and found it difficult to eat without making this crunching sound which sounded like a jaw crunching when you open and close your mouth. I insisted that she take the kitten to a Vet immediately as it had also lost a lot of weight and was only 4 months old.

As she receives some state benefits we took the kitten to Bradford PDSA. On arrival a Vet examined the kitten and found a lump in its intestines and believed the kitten might have Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) and made her sign a form for euthanasia if this was the case.

We went home and about 45 minutes later the PDSA Vet called us to say that she had found a tumour in the kitten’s intestines which was inoperable and had euthanized the kitten. She then asked if we would like her to dispose of the body or if we would like to come and collect it which we did.

Needless to say the whole situation was very upsetting, especially as this was a baby but the Vet had wrapped the kitten in a towel and we left. When we got home my best friend wanted to cuddle the kitten and say goodbye, as did her children. However, when she opened the towel the kitten’s intestines fell out as the Vet hadn’t even closed the wound they made to investigate. Already very emotional this was a shocking thing to see for us adults let alone the children who also saw this. At no point were we advised that the wound hadn’t been closed because obviously had we known then we wouldn’t have unwrapped the towel!

We adults were and are traumatised by this so God only knows what this has done to two very young children! I am utterly shocked and disgusted that any Vet or animal professional could do such a thing but for the PDSA, a charity dedicated to the welfare of animals makes the whole experience even worse! I mean, how long would it have taken the Vet to sew or staple the wound? Was it too much to expect the Vet to tell us that the wound was still open? How much would it have actually cost to close the wound? How would they have felt if their beloved pet came home with its guts hanging out?

I appreciate that the PDSA is a charity and that their survival is held by public donations but something like this is surely nothing more than common decency. I don’t know if this is standard practice or it was just a one off but it’s definitely changed my view of a charity supposed to care for animals!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 10:39 am and is filed under General Chat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.