College Park Animal Hospital my old pet went without treatment and suffered College Park, Maryland

I was a client of College Park Animal Hospital (CPAH) for two years. During those two years, I was satisfied with the care my pets received. However, in January 2008, my old cat, Smokey, became very ill. I took him to CPAH three times and twice to the ER. CPAH missed a serious and potentially life threatening heart condition in Smokey, even though it was obvious on the X-rays taken by one of its vets (recognized immediately by the emergency vet, by which time it was too late). As a result, Smokey deteriorated quickly without any medication for over two weeks. Alarmed by Smokey's symptoms, I began doing reading on the Internet, which lead me to believe that Smokey might have a serious heart disease and should be treated urgently. I called CPAH, and one of the vets there agreed to put Smokey on rescue medication and refer him to a cardiologist. The medication started helping Smokey right away. Why is it that I had to do the research and instruct the vet to put my pet on medication? If treatment was administered when the heart failure was first apparent on the X-ray taken by these vets, it may have been effective and Smokey wouldn't have been allowed to deteriorate and suffer without treatment. Smokey died on January 29th at the ER after a sedative was administered to him. One of the veterinarians treating Smokey at CPAH admitted missing the condition, but the other one and the owner of the hospital refuse to acknowledge that mistakes were made (even though one of his staff member admitted them). To add insult to injury, the owner became defensive and vindictive against me and my family. He has distorted facts, given me misleading medical explanations (making rediculous claims that congestive heart failure cannot be seen on an X-ray), and when I confronted him, began stonewalling. He refused to release Smokey's records and X-rays to me and stopped allowing me and my whole family (including my son's girlfriend) to come onto the premises in order to volunteer with rescued dogs cared for at CPAH, leaving these dogs without the walks and socialization that the four of us have been providing to them prior to the incident.

It is devastating to have your pet harmed, deprived of a chance to be with the family as long as he could and then face the vet, who is unable to be honest and accept responsibility for his staff's mistakes.