"Billie"
From: Jay
Sent: Thursday, April 6, 2009 6:26 PM 

Hi Mel,

I am sending you this email because I have just recieved the bill from my vet who killed my beautiful two and a half year old Basset Hound. I will not be paying the double excess that they charged me. I beleive that had they not given her Previcox she would still be here.

She died in February and I am only now coming to terms with it. My story is that she had a slight limp one day, I thought she had jumped off the wall in the garden. I left her over night on the Wednesday and took her to the vets on the Thurs. They x-rayed her and said she had some kind of maybe arthritic lump in her shoulder. Ok  I said, nothing major, probably due to weather as it was cold and snowing and she did lay in her den in the bracken in my garden for hours chewing her bones and stashing them for another day. Anyway I was told to give her one Previcox tablet every day for fourteen days, well we only got to four days. I was told she may have an upset tummy and that if this happened I was to give her half a tablet. The pills came in a box with no paper work in it telling about them or the side effects. But you trust the vet so you do as they say, after all its only a pain killer. 

So she has her first pill on Thurs evening and looked better Friday morning, so I give her another on Friday evening. We go to bed. Saturday morning she did not look great. I gave her a tablet in the afternoon. She was violently sick, she never ate again.

I didn't think too much of it as the vet said she may get an upset tummy. Half a tablet was given Sunday morning. Sick again, I stop the pills being given as I had a bad feeling. Sunday all day she got worse by the hour. By the evening she is wandering around in circles, then standing still looking into space. I let her out to the garden and she laid in the rain not moving. Over this time she drank water by the bowl full and was sick straight after. 

She got herself into a right mess within a few hours. I thought she would get the pills out of her system by flushing them out, so I kept her warm and cuddled her up,but she just wasnt there, she was slipping away before my eyes. 

Monday morning I ring the vets to explain. I am asked to bring her in at two thirty, all that day was hell. She was very sick, falling over and lying down and gazing into space. I couldnt wait for half two. In the end I waited till 2oclock and rushed her in. I had to carry her into vets.I placed her on the table.

The vet took one look and freaked, she said "Oh God, this is not the same dog as the other day!" She rushed her into the back and put her on a drip.I was told to go home and they would contact me. Half past four the phone rings, I am told she is a very sick dog and not to expect her to make it. My world just collapsed. I could not take it in.

I was told I could come and see her, she was heavily sedated and on a drip. I lay down beside her for half an hour begging her to make it, I left my scarf around her neck so she could smell me, I said goodnight at half past six. I came home devasted but still with a glimmer of hope deep inside, as she was young and until all this, she was fit and healthy and would walk for miles. 

So I sat and wait until I needed to sleep.Then at half past six in the morning the phone rings, I am told she is dead. My son was in my bed, he heard it all, we lay there screaming with tears.

As I type this now my heart is wrenching inside and tears still fill my eyes. I rushed to the vets, I was there by seven. I asked to see her, she was so beautiful. My world fell around me in disbelief. How did this happen?  It was almost like a dream or rather a nightmare. Anyway as I wandered home in the rain, tears running down my face, some of anger most of heart break, I started to think about it all. And the pills kept coming to mind. All was ok until the pills.

So I went on this site. It has taken this long I am afraid to be able to write this to you. I hope you can make some sense of it. And I am sorry for any spelling mistakes as I am rushing to type so I get every memory right. Just typing this all out has helped a bit.

I just hope people read this and never give there dogs these pills without really looking into them. The answer I was given was that she must of had a kidney problem and that she had died of kidney failiure. I told them that if that were the case they should never of given her the pills. They should of taken blood tests before they gave them to her and they would have found out if she had a kidney problem.

They managed to take blood tests within an hour when I took her back on the Monday. Also, had there been a side effects paper in the box, I probably would never of even given them to her and instead of her sitting next to me in a box now, she would still be in her basket.........