To be mad at vets for missing this

[Ipushedmygrannyaffabus]

I have two relatively unusual small animals as pets. About 2/3 weeks ago I noticed the female looking huge, saw her stomach moving, and was convinced she was pregnant. A few days later she seemed to go into labour but no sign of any babies. Took her to my local vet, who said she was too old to be pregnant, it felt like a tumour and in his opinion "I could buy 3 new pets for the cost of surgery on her so why bother.". Wasn't happy at this, so found a vets 20 miles away supposedly specialising in small animals. Took her there. They also said, no babies, feels like a tumour, and arranged a scan tomorrow for her. Also gave me antibiotics to give her in the meantime incase she had an infection. Today, I got up to find she had given birth to 3 babies during the night and all were dead. I'm really annoyed at the vets - that each examined her, missed a triple pregnancy, talked to me about euthanising her, gave her unnecessary medication and left her ill and in pain for weeks! Aibu to complain that they both missed such a simple thing or is it just 'one of those things'?

Am I the only one who wants to understand why OP had a surprise pet pregnancy?

I don't know what the OP wanted... emergency C-section instead?

The babies died due to their negligence, despite op telling them she thought the chinchilla was pregnant. People sue for far less.

You'll never be able to demonstrate that the babies died from vetinerary negligence. Because if the vets had felt movement, they would not have suspected tumour.

Why did vet 2 not scan immediately?

I'd never go near vet 1 ever again.

How awful :( I'd be very upset and angry too and would definitely complain. What a terrible comment about being able to replace her for much less than the price of surgery. That would be true for most pets but I doubt he would have said it about a cat or dog!

for you. Hope your girl makes a speedy recovery.

The babies died due to their negligence, despite op telling them she thought the chinchilla was pregnant. People sue for far less.

I am a solicitor Alexa and you, judging by your comments, are not. This is not something you can sue for.

In veterinary negligence if a pet dies, the damages you get are the cost of a replacement pet.

If the pet itself had died the compensation would have been the cost of a replacement. Damages for three dead chinchillas....where you cannot prove that they would not have died in any event.

Then there is causation......if the vet had discovered the pet was pregnant what would have been different....she still would have lost them by the sound of it.

If you have specialist exotic animals you need a specialist exotic pet vet..most people will have to travel a long way to a specilist as they are uncommon.A regular small animal vet will handle very few exotics and are unlikly to be able to recognise subtle abnormalities or to be used to palpating for pregnacy in that species.

I suspect if she had went into labour and produced nothing that the kits were likely dead and unmoving so felt like an unmovable lump which will also feel like a tumour...meaning that it wasnt neglient of the vets to be concerned about that as an option or to suggest it as a possible issue.
The second vet definately wasnt negligent as they did suggest further tests to find out what the issue was and they gave antibiotics as a precaution in case of infection.

I wouldnt be happy with the first vets comments and would write a letter to the practice advising how that made you feel so that they learn it was inappropriate.....but if they did suggest surgery,even if they didnt recommend it in this case, then its hard to argue negligence as it was mentioned.

At the end of the day negligence is not the same as not knowing whats wrong without further tests.
Vets often needs lots of tests to figure out whats going on with an animal...same as doctors. Its not uncommon for them to be wrong as animals are complicated creatures and theres dozens of issues that look very similar.it can take a lot of time and testing to pinpoint exact issues. Its up to owners then decide what they are willing to do to their animal to get a diagnosis and decide what testing they are willing to pay for.

Sorry to hear about your chinchillas babys.I hope mums doing ok.

Definitely complain. That is disgusting. You need to find a specialist vet.

If you have specialist exotic animals you need a specialist exotic pet vet..most people will have to travel a long way to a specilist as they are uncommon.A regular small animal vet will handle very few exotics and are unlikly to be able to recognise subtle abnormalities or to be used to palpating for pregnacy in that species.

Yes. I didnt like to say but if anything, the owner is the negligent one. If you keep exotic pets then you have to find and pay for a specialist vet. If you cant or wont do that, dont keep exotic pets and then complain that a regular vet, who is used to dealing with dogs, cats, rabbits, can't correctly diagnose them.

I would complain about the comment because they should be advising you according to what is best for your pet, not their assumed financial worth. But I would only be in it for an apology.

Sorry but chinchillas are not an unusual nor uncommon pet.
I'm happy to admit mine was ( even then i was shocked that i knew more about them than my own vet. it was a hedgehog, they frequently had wild ones bought in so should have atleast known the basics) but chinchillas have been a favourite pets for how many decades?
It is not easy to always get a vet that specialises in exotic or small animAls either.
Our old vet stated they knew about ours before we had her ( clearly were not comfortable with her at all) and we did not have one that specialised near us. It was over an hour away.

Umm, why have you not had the male neutered?

I've worked as a Vet for 4 years, did 5 years of training and have been mad about animals since a child.

I have never seen a chinchilla up close, let alone examined one...and I love and have an interest in treating the small furries.

TBH I think you are a bit wrong about how common they are as pets or how often a normal small animal vet will come into contact with a chinchilla.

They would be classed as a specialist exotic animal where I work(small animal hospital)and we would advise owners to seek specialist care if they tried to bring one in in a non emergency as no one on staff has any experience/knowledge in handling them as they are pretty rare.
In an serious emergency we would be able to provide pain relief and fluids...maybe antibiotics(after researching doses for whatever drugs we had availiable if they were safe in that species)..but theres a massive difference between keeping an animal alive and comfortable compared to knowing exactly whats wrong in a small exotic species and knowing thats wrong quickly can made a massive difference to survival rates.

Rats, hamsters, gerbils, ferrets, rabbits,guinea pigs etc are relatively common "exotic" pets and as the above are also research lab animals there tends to be a lot of information available about their medical care as well.
Chinchillas are lovely from what I know of them and clearly must be healthy little creatures but they are not a common veterinary patient in my experience.

Just seen the most recent comments. I actually didn't realise chinchillas were so unusual - we have recently relocated 300 miles and my previous vet had quite a lot of experience with them (but then again, just by chance there were quite a lot of chinchilla owners/breeders where I lived). I certainly won't be taking them back to the first practice again, they are good with the cat but it's a specialist vet from now on for the chins. I'm actually reassured, if that's the right word, that maybe the babies were dead when she first went into labour, so the delay didn't cause their deaths. We didn't get the male neutered as chins don't do great under anaesthetic and as it wasn't like they were popping out babies every year, didn't see the point of taking the risk. If she has another pregnancy which ends the same way however, we definately will. I spoke to vet #1 as I felt it was important he knew what he had missed, if only to hopefully stop it happening to another animal. On the plus side, mum chin has made a great recovery.

Glad she has recovered well, it must have been traumatic for her and you.

In veterinary practice, "small animal" literally just means cats and dogs - this is very misleading, I know. All other household pets (rabbits, rodents, birds, reptiles etc) are classed as exotics. Obviously most small animal vets will see a lot of rabbits etc too and will have experience with the more common conditions affecting them, but they won't have the same knowledge or equipment as an exotics specialist.

I work in a small animal practice and a couple of our vets are quite keen on exotics (rabbits, rodents and birds in this case) and have plenty of experience with them, but as they're not qualified specialists we would still always offer the option of referral. And even though we probably see more exotics than many small animal practices would, I think I've only seen about 3 chinchillas come through our doors in the 4 years I've worked there. Besides being relatively uncommon, they're also a notoriously difficult species to treat, so I think a good experienced exotics vet with a particular interest/specialty in chinchillas would be worth their weight in gold!