Anyone live in the Centreville, VA area and want one man's opinion of a vet that I would not take a dog to (especially a working dog)? Feel free to PM me. Want another vet who lives within a 1hr drive that is well worth the drive...? Also PM me.

I can give you first hand experience.

Hopefully my dog survives this education process.

The vet up the street from me actually misdiagnosed 4 of my families pets. And thats just my family,imagine all the others there probably are. My dog eventually died, I did get a second opinion but it was too late, and a cat would have died had my parents not gotten a second opinion.

I'm sorry.

Mine, the vet was too busy being afraid of my pup to listen. (now I recognize that in hindsight)..... not my normal vet, but was the holiday and was concerned about the symptoms that my pup was showing (gagging, labored breathing, lethargy, nasal discharge) and he had an opening.

He made a quick diagnois...said lungs sound fine, gave him some nausea meds and in the process told me that my pup "had issues" because he "tried to bite him" and that we "need to train him"... WHAT?? You are a VET and take care of animals and don't understand that you manhandle and animal using very bad bedside manner and start poking at a dog in pain and are surprised that the animal gets ouchy?? Think that if the dog had really wanted to bite you wouldn't be bit?? AND on top of it misdiagnose my dog. What an idiot.

2 days later...(yesterday) he still had issues... we took him to our normal vet (40min drive away)_... world of difference, good bedside manner, comfortable, thorough, listed to us explain his simptoms, .... Eventually found out that the pup has a lung infection and only has 40% lung capacity. Is now getting treated. Hope he makes it. If we would have waited until monday to go back to the vet, I am convinced I'd be burying him. Still might be. We'll see today.

So sorry to hear your pup has this illness and am hoping for the very best!

leih

Thanks! Going to get him from the vet now. (stayed overnight) bad thing was that they had to keep him sedated b/c he was fighting the vet and just not happy. (would have been better for his lungs to not be sedated)...Vet recommends we bring him home where he'll be less stressed.

Hopfully the Cipro that that he got via IV will jump start his body on the way to beating the infection.

Again, no news is not necesarily good news. We'll see.

sorry to hear, please keep us updated, very beautiful dog by the way.

What a beautiful dog.Hope things go well.Keep us posted.

I know you may not want to ever speak to that first vet ever again but it's important to let him know how wrong he was about his diagnosis.

You can't fix stupid but you may help this guy realize he was completely wrong about his medical opinion. Who knows how many other dogs you'll save.

I didn't intend to turn this into a thread about my specific situation...I just wanted to put the word out to maybe save others more of the same....

Thanks everybody for the well wishes and the complimements on the pup. We got him from Klatolklin in AK. German Sire, Czech Dam. Pedegree below:

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/544439.html

I'm not sure how to eval pedigrees or whatever, but all I know is that so-far he's proving to be a great pup for us. I have to believe that a family not prepared for a working dog would have issues with this one, i'm sure.

Things are looking up. Much improved this morning...breathing a little better, and tail wagging wanting to get into mischief (he's getting scolded right now by my wife for something...)

We picked him up yesterday. Vet could not get anywhere near his face to either give pills or breathing treatments. She, and us, figured he'd get better care at home at this point. VERY impressed with our vet. No problem with the breed or the fact that he was a difficult patient.

Funny though, was for how ouchy he was with the vet and staff, my wife (his primary handler, and Mama when he's being a little boy) held him in her arms (as in the Flinks vids) and he stood there tail wagging as they took out his IV.

Most likely a bacterial infection. Unknown origin, but a google search does point out that this type of infection is most common in young med-large breed dogs. FYI -Symptoms were: labored breathign, lethargy, just acting weird, coughing as in trying to clear throat, clear nasal discharge, slightly distended belly (enlarged spleen most likely as a result of the infection) but lower down than what you would expect with bloat, dehydration. Appitite was still good however. Blood test returned elevated white-blood cell count.

IV cipro with some O2 therapy when at vets overnight (dog came in withd 60% lung blockage(green-brown mucus sucked out while under)and 75% O2 saturation). VERY bad. Waiting until tomorrow for treatment would have killed him. I thought to wait, but my wife followed her mama's instinct ("the dog is just not right") and made the vet appointment anyway. Good she did.

Now at home with Oral Cipro, a bronchildialator and we have to give nebulizer breathing treatments (saline soln) every 2-4 hrs followed by copage of the ribs/lungs to try and knock loose the infection and help him cough it up. Also sleeping in enclosed room with a humidifier and gets put out in the a.m. in his crate on the back deck for a while to sit in the humid morning air.

Didn't plan on essentially buying a new dog (and then some) for Christmas, but the diagnostics were expensive. (x-ray, blood work etc.) not to mention the drugs. I feel fortunate that I have steady work.

Melissa,

You're right. Even worse was that that first vet had an intern with him... I hate the thought that he is REPRODUCING more idot vets. Hopefully the intern has a brain and figures out how to use it. On top of the diagnosis... he said he would follow up with us "in two days" (the day we took our dog to our regular vet) think we heard from him?? Nope. Idiot. Oh, and he's the DIRECTOR of the clinic (multiple vets). Outstanding.