A Misdiagnosis: A Frustrating Experience with Treatment and an Unpleasant Surprise with the Veterinarian Surgeon

A Misdiagnosis: A Frustrating Experience with Treatment and an Unpleasant Surprise with the Veterinarian Surgeon

Recently, I had to find a decent veterinary clinic near my home, and today I'll share my experience with the veterinary clinic in Tekstilshchiki. As you can see from the photos, the clinic is located at Vолжский бульвар, 95-й квартал, корprus 2 (entrance from the side of the building). They operate without weekends, from 9 am to 10 pm.

I made a consultation reservation for Saturday at 4 pm, but we didn't enter the clinic until 4:20 pm. The wait with the therapist was even longer. I don't understand why making a consultation reservation would be necessary, as with or without it, you still have to wait.

The clinic offers a variety of services, with many specialists and its own vetapteka. My experience was double: first, we visited the therapist, and then the surgery specialist. The clinic can perform an X-ray examination, perform analyses, do an ultrasound, etc.

Regarding prices:

The initial consultation with the therapist costs 800 rubles.The initial consultation with the ophthalmologist, cardiologist, etc. starts at 1,000 rubles.Nail trimming costs 350 rubles.The abdominal cavity ultrasound costs 2,000 rubles.and so on.

The prices in the vetapteka are significantly higher than in any online pet store. For example, the veterinarian prescribed Onsior. The box at the clinic costs 1,500 rubles, while on the Petshop website it costs 950 rubles. The difference is quite significant, but, as I didn't know this, I opted to buy the medication immediately and start the therapy for my cat.

Why did we take our cat to the veterinarian? The truth is that it started having problems with one of its front paws. I observed it for a while, and at first, the swelling wasn't very noticeable, but after some time, I realized it was walking with difficulty and needed to take it to the veterinarian.

The veterinarian examined it for a while, especially the paws, but didn't find anything abnormal. He recommended a consultation with a surgeon for a more detailed evaluation.

The consultation with the therapist costs 800 rubles, but since nothing was found and they didn't help us, they didn't charge us. I was surprised they didn't charge us, even.

The consultation with the surgeon was held on Saturday. The veterinarian examined it for a long time, palpated it, and asked us about the problem. In the end, he recommended an X-ray because, when palpating the poor cat, it seemed to be experiencing pain.

The X-ray is done in the same consultation room. Everyone puts on protective suits and has to hold the poor animal by the paws. I was thrown out of the consultation room at that moment, but my husband stayed there.

The X-ray took a long time, even I got bored waiting. Finally, the paws looked fine, and the veterinarian said there were initial signs of osteochondrosis, something common in Scottish Fold cats due to their artificially selected breed.

In summary, they prescribed Onsior for 6 days and told us to limit our cat's activities. If we have any problems, we should write to the veterinarian immediately and adjust the treatment as needed.

The veterinarian explained everything patiently, although sometimes I thought he was too young and didn't have enough experience. Also, he told us some things I already knew, as I also have problems with my joints and with animals, those disorders like osteochondrosis aren't that different.

And it also took us a long time to write everything, make the diagnosis, and prepare the report.

Not counting the waiting time (about 20 minutes), we stayed there for 1 hour.

X-ray (2 front paws and neck) + consultation with the surgeon - 1,500 rubles.At that moment, he handed me a complete report that was useful to me later (already in another veterinarian-surgeon).

So, let's talk about the therapy. I was administering Onsior as prescribed by the veterinarian + trying to limit my cat and avoid it running/jumping.

I mean, I already described this in this review, and I just want to add that the medication didn't help, although I wrote to the veterinarian twice and told him it wasn't working, and my cat seemed to be walking with greater difficulty. I assured him I should wait, but if it didn't work, he would recommend an MRI and a series of tests...

The most surprising moment arrived. I wasn't administering the medication anymore, waited a bit to be sure (two days) and wrote to the veterinarian again:

He responded with a letter that, honestly, surprised me a bit. Immediately, I thought they had made a wrong diagnosis and wanted to get out of the situation, but, of course, that's not the case (or at least I hope not).

He asked me to write that he should write his assumptions about why the medication hadn't helped me and what I should do next. He responded that I should have my cat undergo more exams (do an MRI, and a consultation with a cardiologist, and a series of analyses...

I cannot express my discontent in words. I feel sad for my cat and for the time wasted.

The swelling after its treatment increased! And, unfortunately, the Tekstilshchiki clinic no longer has a surgeon (I asked and confirmed), so I had to find a new clinic in the area, but, ironically, all the nearby clinics are simple (where they can perform an examination and vaccinate my cat to the extent possible.

I visited another clinic with my cat, where a surgeon was attending. It was useful to have access to X-rays and a diagnosis. The most interesting thing was that the surgeon said my cat has a simple distension, which simply fell in an awkward way (he examined my cat's left hand and confirmed that the bone creaked) + before that, my cat even deigned to walk a bit, and the surgeon said the bone was inclined, so the treatment would have been just as effective, but there was no real inflammation in the bone.

He prescribed glucosamine and chondroitin, which I was already giving to my cat (and in Tekstilshchiki, the veterinarian was against these supplements, as their effectiveness has not been proven, but I know they work, as I've been taking them myself for 4 years, so I didn't listen and ordered a box). The surgeon said I was doing the right thing + prescribed more calcium and other tablets to increase the effect.

That's it! The initial treatment didn't work for us. I must admit that I'm glad the veterinarian left, otherwise, we would have continued with the treatment at the Tekstilshchiki veterinary clinic and would have gone through many unnecessary and expensive tests, and would have been stressing my cat (each visit is a great stress for her). In the other clinic, the veterinarian identified the cause by carefully inspecting my cat.

Me, I don't know if the new treatment will be effective or not, as we only visited once, but at least I can talk about my experience in another review about the other animal clinic.