In September we took our beloved dog to VCA to explore what was wrong. He had a relatively sudden pain in his hind legs and had developed about a dozen lumps on his chest and belly. The vet we saw, after only a minimal exam declared the lumps benign, the legs indeed painful, and a flea infestation. He seemed most concerned about the fleas and the three page three tiered report he gave us on various amounts of money we could spend on services for our pet. We left with flea treatment, pain meds, and the report detailing how we could spend around $3000 on further diagnostics and treatments.
Fast forward to this week: We took our dog to an old fashioned vet recommended by a friend. He gave our Rocky and extended exam, couldn't feel any problems with his legs, but acknowledged they were indeed causing him alot of pain. After completing an Xray he came in with the news that Rocky was suffering from extensive bone cancer in his hip and spine. We had no choice but to put him out of his misery.
This cancer was fast moving and quite debilitating. Had the VCA doctor listened to us, and tried a bit harder to determine the cause of our dog's pain and sudden appearance of multiple lumps, we maybe could have headed off the loss of over 30 pounds, and the almost 3 months of extreme pain he suffered because we thought he could get better.
Veterinary medicine should be about more than just convincing people to spend money on needless procedures before even trying to find out what the problem is.
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