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| - I've thought a lot about whether I needed to write this review. It's difficult because I can only imagine how stressful it must be for these vets, especially when they work primarily with pets in critical and emergency situations. I brought my puppy here because I believed it to be the most competent veterinary service in Las Vegas. I was even backed up a number of times at primary vets, where they made statements like "Well if VE+CC said that, it must be true." However, I think it should be said that VE+CC is not going to save every animal. And owners should be cautious and questioning and relentless in finding the best solutions for their pets. We brought our dog here probably 5-6 times in his short life. Every time we decided to do everything the vets suggested, until the day that he died. Multiple visits and thousands of dollars without answers can really wear a person down.
My dog was hospitalized last year for vomiting and after a number of tests and suggestions that maybe he was poisoned, VE+CC diagnosed him with Addison's disease. He was prescribed medicine and everything went well until about 6 months later when he began pacing and panting and staying up all night. I brought him to my primary vet, who did an Xray and recommended I take him back to VE+CC because he suspected a liver shunt and didn't have the tools to treat him properly. I took him back where he was hospitalized again and released the next day without any explanation for his symptoms. They ruled out both liver problems and Addison's Disease. We were scheduled to return in two weeks "as long as he's not having any issues. If he is, bring him back sooner."
A week later, he started showing the same symptoms and we brought him in again. His vitals were good so they prescribed him some anti anxiety and pain meds. Another week later it happened again and I tried calling the vet. She was unable to return any of my calls but did email me saying she couldn't explain his symptoms and to take videos of his episodes to look at during the followup. A few days later we brought him in for the last time. The emergency vet informed us that our puppy had ammonia levels so high they couldn't take a reading. This was said to be due to either a liver shunt or liver failure. Our dog had been refusing every kind of food and we had been feeding him chicken, beef, and rice... which releases ammonia that can't be filtered by a faulty liver. We had informed the vets about his new diet previously and since they said his liver looked fine they must not have thought about this possibility. We were told the cost of stabilizing him would be between $1,500-3,500 and then it would be determined if surgery would need to be done to see if he had liver shunts. I was shocked because I had already hospitalized him twice and now they were telling me that the liver that they ruled out twice before is the culprit. I couldn't believe they were asking me to pay this money yet again. After looking clearly at the situation and the serious issues that my 1.5 year old puppy was facing so early in life, we decided to put him down.
It's frustrating that although I brought my dog in more than once for the same symptoms and called and emailed the vet a number of times, no one thought it would be a good idea to bring him in earlier for a followup. It's frustrating that my dog was misdiagnosed with Addison's disease and that his symptoms worsened over two weeks due to a liver they told me was healthy. I understand that no one can get it right every time. I just felt that the vets were always very busy and weren't able to really do everything they could to put their heads together and figure this out. The worst part is, when I called for a followup after my dog had passed asking what may have caused this, our vet suggested he had been poisoned. She refused to suggest it was anything else. We later met with our primary vet for a second opinion and he believed that a liver shunt was still a possibility even though they may not have seen it on two separate ultrasounds.
I will say that up until the day that our dog died, I really liked this place. I didn't feel comfortable going anywhere else. I felt like they knew and cared about my dog. I can't blame anyone specifically for what happened to him, I only urge people to get second opinions. Even if VE+CC is the only place that can do certain tests or procedures, take those results somewhere else to see if something may have been missed. I'm sure they do the best that they can but sometimes it's not enough. It's unfortunate that with animals, owners have to sometimes make a difficult decision of whether to treat an animal and pay thousands of dollars or not. The entire experience haunts me every day and I'm constantly asking what I could have done differently.
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