Animal Emergency Service, Animal Emergency Svc, PC Does Not Inform owners of deadly side effects of medications they perscribe Selden New York

On July 20, 2008 I brought my cat, Little Man, to Animal Emergency Services in Selden, NY because he was having trouble urinating. He was seen by Dr. Steven Templeton and diagnosed with a UTI and "possible urinary blockage." He was given antibiotics, steriods, perscription food and a perscription for 5mg of valium 3X a day for 5 days.

When I asked why the valium I was told it would make it easier for him to urinate. I was told to follow-up with my own vet the following day. My vet said that the records Selden had sent them stated that as long as Little Man was urinating on his own I didn't have to bring him back in to be seen. For the next week I made sure to give him all his medication, including leaving work in the middle of every day to make sure he got his valium pills every 8 hours.

He was urinating on his own and aside from being groggy from the valium he seemed fine. On July 26th he wouldn't eat his dinner, which I attributed to coming down from being on valium all week. By July 27th he still wouldn't eat so I called Selden Monday morning, July 28th, to see if I should bring him in. They said I could if I wanted but gave me the names and numbers of other vets I could see.

The first vet was Coram Animal Clinic. I called them and they got me right in. The first thing Dr. Rowman said when he found out my cat had been on valium for a week was "valium can cause liver failure in cats, I've seen it happen. I want to do bloodwork on your cat before we treat anything." They did the bloodwork and gave Little Man fluids because he was dehydrated. I was able to take him home and told I would get a phone call as soon as they had the results of the bloodwork the next day. That night Little Man was doing really bad, couldn't stand on his own and I had to help him into the litter box.

I was up with him all night before he had a violent seizure at 6:30 the next morning, July 29th, and passed away. When Coram called me later that day they confirmed that it was liver failure caused by the valium. When I called Selden to tell them what happened and request some of my money back since I paid almost $400 to them only to have them perscribe medication that killed my cat I was told by the office manager that it's not their responsibilty to go over ever side effect of medications and that they can't be held responsible for what happened to my cat.

She told me they would not be give me ANY of my money back. Then she told me that they perscribe valium to cats all the time without any problems and that I should go on VIN.com to look up valium. I couldn't get onto VIN.com because I'm not a vet, but I was able to get onto their partner website, veterinarypartner.com where I found an article written by a vet stating that since valium can cause liver failure in cats it's important to do bloodwork to check liver levels before starting the cat on the medication and a few days into treatment to make sure liver levels are still OK. NONE of this was done; I was NEVER informed this was a possible side effect - had I been informed I wouldn't have wanted my cat to receive this medication.

Bottom line is this: My cat was barely over 2 years old, and had I never brought him to Selden Animal Emergency Services he would still be alive today.

Michelle
Patchogue, New York
U.S.A.