WE DO NOT RECOMMEND THESE VETERINARIENS OR THEIR FACILITIES
PattyCakes, a three year old Doberman Pinscher, died Saturday, January 2, 2010 due to miss-diagnosis of her condition by 4 veterinarians and a massive failure on the part of Gulf Coast Veterinary Internists and Critical Care of Houston, Texas. The doctors charged with caring for PattyCakes were P. Max Heimlich, DVM of Stuebner Airline & Champions Veterinary Hospitals and at Gulf Coast Veterinary Internists and Critical Care facility R. Dennis Heald, DVM (Diplomat, American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Small Animal Internal Medicine) Derek P. Burney, DVM Board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, and finally last but certainly not least Colleen Willms-Cook, DVM, Board-certified in Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Medicine.
Friday, December 18, 2009 - PattyCakes ate a 6 page magazine early in the morning. By 6:00 pm she had thrown up her dinner. Saturday, December 19, 2009 a call was made to Patty's regular veterinarian and we were notified that she could not see PattyCakes that day and we should go to an animal emergency clinic in our area. We phoned several friends who are also animal-lovers and both recommended the same clinic - Stuebner Airline & Champions Veterinary Hospitals AAHA accredited.
We were able to get her an appointment with P. Max Heimlich, DVM. He did an exam , radiology, and ran a blood panel. The interpretation of the radiology showed no blockage. PattyCakes was given an injection of Cerenia, Mylicon was administered and prescriptions of Flagyl, and Ranitidine were sent home with us to administer. At this juncture Max Heimlich thought PattyCakes' system was upset from the paper, but she would be fine. We were to keep an eye on her. It was agreed that a trip out of town would be okay at this time. On Sunday, December 20, 2009 we traveled to see family for Christmas. Monday, December 21, 2009 PattyCakes would not eat and was trying to go to the restroom, but could not. Tuesday started out the same, so early Tuesday, December 22, 2009 we consulted P. Max Heimlich, DVM via phone and were instructed to give mineral oil and Metamucil. We gave this 24 hours to work. It did not. We headed back to Houston early on Wednesday, December 23, 2009. PattyCakes went straight into emergency exploratory surgery at around 8:30pm Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at Stuebner Airline & Champions Veterinary Hospitals with P. Max Heimlich, DVM performing the surgery.
P. Max Heimlich, DVM informed us that no blockage was found. We were told he biopsied the stomach, the spleen and took two biopsies of the large intestine. There was fluid and air but other than that noting of note that would cause the problem we were seeing. He washed her out and stitched her up. We paid for all-night care and went home around 11:00pm. Thursday, December 24, 2009 we were allowed to bring PattyCakes home.
more to come please check back for the rest of this story. Jan. 19, 2010
