A B.C. dog owner whose sick pet suffered terribly after a veterinarian left it unattended is calling for better rules about overnight stays at vet clinics. The epileptic dog, Nip, had a seizure while caged and alone that left him paralyzed.

“Whatever person opened up the vet clinic in the morning found him thrashing in his cage,” said owner Annette Dehalt, who said she was shocked when she arrived later to pick up her pet.

“He couldn’t even right himself. He tried desperately to lift his head to greet me and he was kind of drooling.”

Dehalt said the Victoria vet, Dr. Malcolm Macartney, had told her Nip needed to be kept overnight for "observation" after exploratory surgery. She said the vet knew her dog was epileptic and prone to debilitating seizures.

“I wanted to take him home,” said Dehalt. “I remember pretty much verbatim what Dr Macartney said. He said ‘No — we should really keep him here in the clinic for overnight observation.’”

She said she presumed that meant someone would be there.

“I wanted to take him home … but at the same time I realized, OK, if that’s necessary, if he needs veterinary supervision ... especially with his seizure record.”

Instead, the dog was left alone for 9½ hours, from when the vet last checked on him at 10 p.m. until morning staff arrived and found him having a full-blown seizure.

If Dehalt had been caring for Nip at home when he had his seizure, she would have been able to respond immediately by giving him medication and rushing him to an emergency clinic.

“I was sleeping … while he was thrashing against the metal bars of that cage after surgery — alone in an empty vet clinic — paralyzing himself,” Dehalt said.

“Here I was thinking he was in the best possible place — at the veterinarian clinic, under observation.”

Nip was an active, nine-year-old Australian cattle dog. Dehalt said he was walking fine and playing the day she brought him to Macartney’s clinic, MacKenzie Veterinary Services, in April 2009, for digestive problems.

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She said she had to carry him out to the car the next day — because he couldn’t walk — after she paid Macartney’s $2,128 bill for the exploratory surgery.

“I was not allowed [by the vet] to take my walking dog home the night before,” said Dehalt.

The bill included $89 in charges for "hospitalization" and "in-patient evaluation.'

“What is the point of leaving him at the vet clinic without anybody there?” Dehalt asked.

Nip died three months later, from an untreated cancer growth, which Macartney had failed to inform Dehalt about.

“He was paralyzed — and he had cancer that he didn’t get painkillers or treatment for,” she said.

The vet had removed tumours during the exploratory surgery, but lab tests afterward showed the cancer was likely to recur. Macartney didn’t send the lab results to Dehalt’s new vet until three months later, and by then Nip was near death.

In the meantime, Dehalt was spending countless hours trying to rehabilitate her crippled dog, with help from her new vet. She said it still haunts her that she pushed Nip to try to walk and kept him on a restricted diet, oblivious to the fact he was in pain and dying.

“I was deprived of doing right by a dog that meant everything to me,” said Dehalt. “I can’t imagine how he suffered … that’s heartbreaking no matter how many years pass.”

After Nip died, Dehalt sued Macartney. He settled this year by paying her $22,422, the full amount she asked for.

Part of the settlement was for Nip’s pain and suffering, which Dehalt’s lawyer Graham Jones believes is unprecedented for an animal in Canada.

“Pets are a very significant part of the family for a lot of people and what happens to them and the suffering they experience can easily be passed on to their owners,” said Jones.

Dehalt also complained to the College of Veterinarians of B.C. In its final decision, the college said it advised Macartney to get informed consent from owners before keeping pets overnight at his clinic unattended.

The college, however, found he was not guilty of any wrongdoing or misconduct. Go Public asked several times for an interview with someone from the college, but did not get an answer before deadline.

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