It is with a very heavy heart that I have to report our Bates is no longer with us. He went to the vet Valentine’s Day 2020 for his luxating patella because he was wincing in pain every so often. The vet’s office we had just started going to would repeatedly ignore our request for the vet that we asked for, and would put us with any other vet in the office. I can’t help but think if we had been able to see the good vet we asked for that perhaps he would still be here. The vet we did see asked us to leave him all afternoon and pick him up right before they closed. We left him for tests, picked him up along with the recommended prescription which had to be dropped off at a compounding pharmacy. We waited for the prescription to be made for him then gave it to him that night. His breathing changed so we rushed him to the emergency vet thinking it was an allergic reaction to the medicine. So many crazy things happened so fast. The emergency vet took him back to where they treat dogs while we filled out the paperwork with his medical history and symptoms. Within 5 minutes they came out to tell us he was gone. They have saved so many of our dogs over the last 20 years of having special needs pets, so I assumed they gave us that message that must have been for someone else. Then they confirmed it was Bates! We asked how, what happened, what was it, are you sure there is absolutely nothing that can be done?! So they went back to him and worked on him. Which, for the record, don’t come out to me *ever* if there is still anything you could possibly do to save my dog still! Unbelievably infuriating! It was wasted minutes spent talking to me instead of giving Bates the best chance to live. Instead, they were able to bring him back using life support measures only, then they came to get us, so we had to look at him being kept alive artificially. I won’t describe what that is like to save you and to save me from reliving it. We had to then make the decision to pull the life support and watch his body die. It was so painful. I would have never rushed to hand him off to the vet if I thought that was the last time I would ever see him. I would have told him I love him again when he was awake and alive and could hear it. I asked what exactly happened and they did not know. They said it could have been a stroke, a heart attack or an undiagnosed disease. Considering my dogs see the best vet in the state, it is not likely to be anything undiagnosed. A few days after the shock wore off, I googled the medicine that the regular vet office had given him. One of the first things it said was that the medicine was NOT to be used on dogs! So, lesson learned! ALWAYS google every medicine before deciding to give it to your pets. If I had done that before I gave it to him, he might be here still. That vet did bloodwork and never called with results since he died. Instead, I called them and asked for his lab results. They said they are sorry he passed away because the emergency vet’s office forwarded the results of that visit. I had the regular vet go through the entire labs as if he were still a living dog. Then I told them what I found out with one simple google of the medication name! I hate their guts for prescribing it. He was the sweetest boy that we rescued from a 17 dog hoarding rescue. I thought the worst was behind him. I had no idea his time with us would end in such heartbreak. He deserved better. His best friend Polly grieved for months. They were two peas in a pod and would sit face to face pawing at each other, licking each other’s faces and ears, and she would always lick his forehead or the top of his head into a cowlick. They were such a cute and bonded duo. We will always miss our little man Bates.