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Wrote my letter of complaint to the specialist u/d post 18 it's chin rubbing!

cpayne

Warren Veteran
I received a letter from their practice manager as my new specialist has asked for her case history, so she wrote to me saying it's with great regret they have forwarded Doughnut's history on. The letter goes on to say if I'm not 100% happy to share my feedback or comments with her.

I've got her email address so have done a long email setting out all of Doughnut's history and the mistakes and attaching the three videos for her to view. I've ended saying I want a refund and compensation.

I work for solicitors so one of them is just checking it over for me then I will send it today, wish me luck!
 
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Yes the letter is very nice and said if I want to return in future they would be delighted to have me and please rest assured that you would be warmly welcomed. I bet I would since I've spent a lot of money!

I've just sent the email, it's a page long. At the bottom I put I want to be reimbursed within 14 days due to their failure to exercise due care and skill and I want a full refund as well as compensation. I also said I would be happy to discuss this on the phone.

I just hope that she discusses this with all the vets/nurses and they are extra careful with future pets. It's not so much about the money for me although I definitely could do with it, it's more about Doughnut suffering and how she would have continued to suffer if I had listened to them. Let's see what happens!
 
I wrote a complaint letter to my original vets about the treatment of Bee bunny they wrote a professional letter back adressing all the points but the defended how they did it and I still don't agree. It makes me sad but maybe I've put doubt in their minds for the next time sometimes that's all you can do. I regret not asking for a refund on the last bit i paid for about £16 because i'm sure at least part of what they gave me was wrong but i'm not sure they would have given me it anyway. They weren't bunny specialists (I thought they were alright before then but i'd never had a poorly bunny) and my point was that i should have been referred straight away to a bunny specialists. (I did go to bunny specialists vets to treat Bee bunny)
 
I have paid about £350 to them. I'm not so annoyed with the two vets I went to as what Doughnut had was unusual and they didn't keep her in for observation. They just said to go to a specialist.
 
Just had a long conversation with the Practice Manager. No refund and it is still apparently all normal behaviour. We were getting nowhere.

She did say when Doughnut was in hospital it was observed she was wet so was given some medicine as well as metacam. I said I was never told about this and I was told nothing was wrong, that her tail was wet as she must have sat in urine! Also she probably felt better since she had had some metacam.

Anyway I'm taking it further now. She said she has a senior vet who can call me to explain things. I said what's the point as he will look at the video and say it's normal. Anyway he's calling but still taking it to the next level.
 
Just had a long conversation with the Practice Manager. No refund and it is still apparently all normal behaviour. We were getting nowhere.

She did say when Doughnut was in hospital it was observed she was wet so was given some medicine as well as metacam. I said I was never told about this and I was told nothing was wrong, that her tail was wet as she must have sat in urine! Also she probably felt better since she had had some metacam.

Anyway I'm taking it further now. She said she has a senior vet who can call me to explain things. I said what's the point as he will look at the video and say it's normal. Anyway he's calling but still taking it to the next level.

It might be worth pointing out that you belong to a rabbit forum patronised by many who run rabbit rescues & are therefore very experienced indeed in rabbit behaviour. There have been currently 6,009 views of this thread, & no one considered this to be normal behaviour.
ERGO given the vast numbers of rabbits represented by these people, there is NO WAY that this can be considered to be normal behaviour.

I imagine that they are trying to dismiss the throat rubbing as chin scenting. We are all perfectly used to chin scenting in rabbits & none of us thought that it was that, which would again shows their ignorance of normal rabbit behaviour.

You also described other features, features of rabbit illness, & a change of behaviour for no reason = evidence of illness. The least they should have done was to advise referral to a specialist vet much earlier. You had to do this yourself. Indeed it resulted in serious, treatable life threatening pathology being diagnosed for the 1st time.

Go for it hun. No one can get the diagnosis right every time, but dismissing this as normal behaviour wasn't on.
Good luck if you have to take it further.
 
This is the specialist I was referred to who says it's normal. She speaks all around the country and is still saying it's normal.

I'm going to get a full report from Mark and his findings and then will send it back to the practice manager and say if they are not going to reconsider I will take it to the small claims court.

She was even implying that the specialist questioned the medicines that Mark had given and that one leads to fungi in the gut and when was it given. I said it was after the test results had been done, the medicine wasn't the cause of it!
 
How could ANYBODY, let alone a VET, say that behaviour was normal? That is ridiculous. The fact that your new vet has managed to dull down her symptoms and actually give her some reprieve proves that SOMETHING was wrong. I think you are right to pursue this, good luck with it and keep us updated!
 
I didn't get a phone call from the senior vet, I am now hoping that he watched the videos and said to the practice manager that's not normal! I will email her at the end of the week if I don't hear to see what he said. I said to her I'm sure he will just go along with the specialist and say it's normal.

It's so annoying. The next step would be the small claims court but I wanted to go qualified specialists who could say no it's not right as the people viewing the case will probably have no idea. I will have to get Mark to write a report for me to say it isn't so then basically it seems to be one specialists view over another.

They take no notice that I said she no longer makes the noise or rubs her throat since she is no longer in pain.

The trouble is the practice manager has no clue as isn't a vet and says what a specialist Kate is and she speaks all over the country and she knows best.
 
I've just emailed again to say the senior vet hasn't called me. He or the practice manager is calling me again today. Sure it's the same old rubbish that it's normal. May have to go to SpecSavers for them all!

I'm going to ask that if I get a report from my specialist if they will listen then. I doubt it. I guess the next step is the small claims court. So annoying as non rabbit people will be involved the probably haven't got a clue.

I don't want to let this go though, I feel I'm fighting for Doughnut now. All the months she has suffered and would obviously still be suffering since she's behaving "normally" in their eyes.

I'll post again after the call but it may not be printable!
 
The senior vet and the senior nurse looked at the videos. It is normal, she is chin rubbing.

Just had another argument. Apparently the bottom of rabbits throats are always red so he probably thought it was inflamed and he should have taken a biopsys. I'm getting so annoyed trying to blame Mark who has only help Doughnut and pretending he hasn't a clue. I said the bloods came back showing a high infection and she was no longer making the noises or throat rubbing.

Anyway totally fuming now. Mark will write a report for me. Not sure what my next course of action will be. Either send it to the practice manager or small claims court.
 
The senior vet and the senior nurse looked at the videos. It is normal, she is chin rubbing.

Just had another argument. Apparently the bottom of rabbits throats are always red so he probably thought it was inflamed and he should have taken a biopsys. I'm getting so annoyed trying to blame Mark who has only help Doughnut and pretending he hasn't a clue. I said the bloods came back showing a high infection and she was no longer making the noises or throat rubbing.

Anyway totally fuming now. Mark will write a report for me. Not sure what my next course of action will be. Either send it to the practice manager or small claims court.

Perhaps try going to citizens advice? I am worried that a so called "specialist" is saying that her behaviour is normal despite all the evidence!
 
Perhaps try going to citizens advice? I am worried that a so called "specialist" is saying that her behaviour is normal despite all the evidence!

Everyone in that practice says it's normal! But when I showed the video to my local vet he said he had no idea what it was, never seen anything like it before but he knew it wasn't right. He wasn't a specialist though so I wouldn't have expected him to know what was wrong but was thankful after months of trying to get help that he recognised it wasn't right.
 
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