On Monday, in a fluke accident, our 7 month old Dane puppy Brennan, broke his left hind leg above the stifle joint. He was coming out of his vari-kennel and somehow cracked his leg on the inside lip, causing a spiral fracture. It was a clean break with no bone fragments, just above the growth plate, so no worries there. We took him straight to the Mt Mckinley’s office (unfortunately we couldn't get hold of our first 3 choices of vets) to get xrays. They took 2 xrays, and gave him some morphine for pain and iv fluids. After looking at the xrays, the Dr. wanted to do surgery to put a rod in the leg. Now, this is a growing Great Dane...so if they were to pin/rod him, it would interfere with the growth of the leg. After saying this to the doc, she agreed and said that no matter what, the leg wouldn't be "normal". We've had BAD experiences with pins in growth plates, ending up with crooked legs/short legs before. So, we said absolutely no rods or pins. We discussed casting or splinting. She said casts aren't a good idea but a splint would be a viable option, as we could keep him quiet and we've had experience with this before. Shoot, when I was young, we had a doberman who broke his rear leg in the same place and had a cast on all the way up to his hip. Anyway, the vet said they'd keep him overnight and then talk with their Ortho vet in the morning to do the splint.
Manny had to call the next morning to find out when we could pick our pup up. They said they wanted to pin his leg and that it would be $2300. At this point, our bill for 2 xrays, pain meds/iv fluid and 1 overnight stay was over $600. Now, we've been going to Mt. Mckinley Animal hospital for 7 years when we can’t get in to see Dr. Jayne, have given them thousands of dollars, yet they wouldn't work with us. When Manny asked the vet to splint the leg so we could bring him home and that we would handle it (I was in the process of trying to contact Cort Zackle), the vet refused and said that he'd release him to another vet, but that the other vet (Aurora) would "tell us the same thing". Then, he went on to state that the soft bandage on Brennan's leg wasn't stable enough to move him. So, again, Manny asked him to splint/stabilize the leg so we could move him and was told no. Basically, we were told either pay this money and have them do a procedure we did NOT want done, or put our dog to sleep (of course, not in so many words). Manny said he really didn't feel he had a choice, authorized the euth and by the time I tried to call McKinley within 5 minutes of the decision to euth, they had already put our pup to sleep. Now, I have a bill over $700 for what I feel was basically doing NOTHING for my dog other than the 2 x-rays, iv fluids, some pain meds and of course, Killing him. We feel that they completely violated our rights as pet owners. The thing that hurts the most is that I feel the vet clinic gave us no choice and would not listen to our wishes, though we had been assured the night before that they would do exactly that. I'm just floored right now, in shock that we've lost our beautiful pup over a simple fracture. I was also expected to go to McKinley to "take care of my bill". I'm just livid, yet hurting.
I did get a hold of another vet and was told that not only was this illegal to not release our dog to us and do what we asked, but it was also immoral and unethical. We were told that we were being strong-armed into something that not only would mess up our pup's leg, but also to pay an outrageous sum for the procedure. We feel that we were pretty much forced to put our dog to sleep or pay them all this money for a procedure that we didn't want done in the first place.
Needless to say, we are not letting this go. Not only will I NOT pay this bill, but we will be contacting an attorney and contacting the Board of Veterinary Medicine, as we've been advised to do. I ask that if anyone else has a similar situation with Mt. McKinley Animal Hospital, please email me at tamirego@alaska.net or runswift@alaska.net and share your experience. I am compiling these issues to present to the board. Now, we are questioning the euthanization of our first Dane, Kaiser. We also dealt with this same vet and he told us that the dog couldn't be helped other than possibly giving him meds to extend his life "maybe" a couple of months, but that it wouldn't be good months for him. I'm finding that others dealt with the same condition with their danes/wolfhounds and their dogs went on to live YEARS longer on medication. So, this vet has cost the lives of BOTH of our Great Danes.
Feel free to contact me concerning this issue and think twice before going to Mt. McKinley Animal Hospital.
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