On Jan. 31 2013 our beloved Bulldog Oscar suffered unnecessary pain and lost his life within 3 hours after what was supposed to be a simple surgery at this ""animal hospital"". I am a RN with 30 years of clincal experience. My wife is a Doctor of Pharmacy. When I picked Oscar up after surgery, performed by Royal Smalley DVM, he was in extreme pain and had noisy, labored respirations. After much complaining about his condition he was finally medicated for extreme pain for the ride home with something called ""hydro"". The ""vet tech"" gave him an injection in the back seat of my car and told me to go home ""he will be fine"". 35 minutes later his breathing became shallow, slower and quieter and he whispered away. I could not revive him. Royal Smalley DVM did not look at Oscar after the surgery, nor did he come out to see him when I complained about his pain and breathing. The staff told me to ""take him home he is fine"" they were closing soon. Beware of ""hydro"". It is actually hydromorphone, aka Dilaudid, an extremely potent respiratory depressant ten times the strength of morphine. Yesterday I received Oscar's record and discovered that Oscar was a diabetic. His preoperative lab results showed a blood sugar that was off the scale. Royal Smalley DVM either did not look at the preop labs, for which we paid extra, or he chose to ignor them. Either way we were not informed. I would have cancelled surgery and treated the hyperglycemia. There are too many disturbing details to describe here but the message is this. Insist that vets notify the owner of lab results before performing surgery. Beware of ""hydro"". Check out your ""animal hospital"". Is it really a hospital? Does it offer a greater level of safety and service than a vet's office or clinic. The word ""hospital"" infers an ability to safely recover surgical patients and not discharge them until they are stable, as well as evaluate patients before administering potent narcotics and observe until stable. Animal Hosptals should not be solo practices. Do not go to Broadway Animal ""hosptal"" and Royal Smalley DVM. He is currently under multiple investigations. Smalley has previous action against him on his record also involving respiratory depression mortality and lack of appropriate record keeping. Watch King 5 News GetJesse for the continuing story. Oscar we love you. We miss you so much.
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