Top 4 Reasons Why You Can File Complaints against Veterinarians

Reason #1. Negligence

You may engage a vet to diagnose an illness, to assess an overall wellbeing or to treat your pet. But in case he or she fails to provide you with the correct information or to take proper care that leads to any sort of injury, harm or even death of your dear furry (or not so furry) creature, it means that a veterinary doctor acted negligently.

Medical errors, misdiagnosis, delays in diagnosis, negligent pre-purchase assessment of the animal can also serve as a basis for formal complaints against veterinarians. Look at the Banfield Pet Hospital review posted by a PissedConsumer.com user who shares his experience with the company. According to the post, he lost his dog because of vet negligence.

"...after waiting for several hours (4 or 5 hours later) the Dr. Dominguez finally came out and tell that everything is ok, and gave me some medications. When go inside to look for my dog, Daisy was dead... HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN??? I see the Dr. trying to CPR my Daisy... When i look into the paper, the don't give any medication in the clinic, just a vitamin (Nutrical)..."

Reason #2. Professional Misconduct

All vets should adhere to the code of professional conduct. They owe a duty of care to their clients. Dishonesty, false certification, fraud, taking advantage of your age or inexperience, acting against your instructions constitute cases to file a complaint.

Reason #3 Veterinary Malpractice

If your dear animal suffers injury because of actions or non-actions of a vet within his/her professional background, it is referred to veterinary malpractice, i.e. a vet harms your pet through incompetence or carelessness. Sometimes people use the terms of negligence and malpractice interchangeably.

But these are 2 distinctly different legal concepts. The principal difference between them is that negligence involves unintentional mistakes and oversights. And malpractice is a type of negligence where a veterinarian intentionally fails to provide standard care to a patient. Negligence is considered less serious than malpractice. The following example constitutes veterinary malpractice based on Banfield Pet Hospital complaint on pissedconsumer.com.

"I brought my 7 year old yorkie into Banfield pet hospital in Brick,NJ for dental cleaning. She went to the vet regularly and she was playful and healthy. they called 4 hours later and said she had DIED and there were always possible complications from anesthesia. I was understandably inconsolable!..."

Reason #4. Animal Abuse or Animal Cruelty

If you think that no vet deliberately harms an animal, then you should study the records of disciplinary actions taken by vet boards. They say otherwise. Animal cruelty covers non-accidental injuries as well as practicing veterinary medicine without a license.

For example, found on Wbaltv.com, a Baltimore veterinarian Gregory Burbelo was accused of animal cruelty last year. He struck a barking dog brought in for surgery. "Dr. Barbelo raised his hand and struck the dog several times across the face".

Next, if you have a complaint about veterinary services, you should know who can be of any assistance. Come to the right shop!