I am in complete support of increasing the mandatory education hours for veterinary techs from 6 hours per year to 8 hours per year and here is my reasoning:

We took our healthy kitten for a routine spay

At 1130 am, her surgery ended.  No post op note written

At 2:30 pm, we were told her surgery “went well and she was waking up fine.”

An untimed notation that “Ketofen sq” “not given.”  No time was documented and no reason was documented as to why the medication was not given.

At 4:40 pm a licensed vet in Virginia wrote in her chart that Molly was “non responsive in her cage.”  That vet did nothing except to turn the lights off and leave Molly alone to die in the dark.

At 9 pm, a vet tech came in to check on Molly.  She noted Molly “responsive when stimulated” eg unresponsive.  So now, Molly is 9 + hours post-op and her neuro status has been determined twice not to be normal.  The vet tech also turned all the lights and left Molly alone in the dark to die.

We filed a complaint with the vet board:

.Against the vet who did Molly’s surgery and did not write a post-op note

Against the vet who noted Molly was “non responsive” and did nothing

Against the owner of the clinic for negligent supervision

Against the vet tech, who also failed to call the owners to notify us that Molly needed immediate care.  The vet tech also failed to call a veterinarian to ask for advice.  

Had the vet tech called us, we would have immediately gone to the clinic and took Molly to an overnight facility for emergent care and treatment.

Some of the problems with the investigation into our complaint

1. We had obtained a second opinion from an unbiased vet who said that the owners should have been notified of the change in Molly’s neuro status.  We told the investigator that she could contact the vet, but the Board said that we told the investigator that she could not contact the unbiased vet.  We only obtained the 2^nd opinion so that it was available for the investigator.  We did this prior to filing our complaint.  We very specifically told the investigator that she could contact the independent vet.
2. Neither the board nor the investigator acknowledged our complaint against the vet tech.  Assumption can only be that the investigator or the board failed to follow up on that complaint.
3. The care that Molly received was determined to be an acceptable standard of care for animals in the state of VA. 

Just maybe if this vet tech had more continuing education, she might have had the critical thinking that the vet lacked in recognizing that Molly was suffering and dying.

The above is what passes for a reasonable standard of veterinary care in VA.

I am willing to share Molly’s record with anyone who would like to review it.

I can be contacted at Mollymittens7@gmail.com

Respectfully submitted

Molly Mittens Mom