Hypoxia and Medicine

A vet is treating a pet with a terminal medical condition and has not told the owners it is terminal. help!?

A vet is treating a pet that he has found out has a terminal medical condition, you are a vet tech and you know, but the owners do not. What should you do?

Public Comments

1. The vet will break the news to them eventually. I hate to say "not your problem", but it only is if they come out and ask you, and I think you would have to tell the truth in that situation.
2. It's the vet's place to discuss it with the clients, not yours. If it worries you, ask the vet why he's chosen not to tell the clients. It's possible that he HAS told them and they're in denial, or he's waiting for the right opportunity to tell them. If you don't like the answer or think it's unethical, then find a different vet to work for. If the clients for some reason come right out and ask you, I think the correct thing for you to do would be to refer them to the vet, as he is the one with the degree - doing otherwise might be construed as practicing veterinary medicine and can probably get you in A LOT of trouble. If this is a real-world situation that you're in, the vet is the one who's got years of practice under his belt - you're a vet tech who is still in college. I would defer to the vet's knowledge and experience in this situation.
3. contact the regulatory body and the owner and get that greedy SOB disciplined. It's amazing what people do for money!! EDIT: On second thought, talk to the vet first. Ask him why he is not telling them. That was a crappy first answer I gave, I guess I get a little emotional when it comes to pets...*sigh* so if you know for sure that he is only trying to make money off of them, report it.
4. Wait...it could backfire. We had a girl tell us our dog had cancer and was terminal and we had the date set to put her down...and after a conference with other vets, the doc retested and it was just food in her stomach cuz my dad fed her and didn't know he wasn't supposed to. They thought it was tumors.
5. well ask him/her if they r goin to telll the peeps and if not u can w/out lettin them know who u r by phonein them by hittin *67 and dialin their number they should know as soon as poss and u dont get busted for tellin them about it,Nobody deserves to be lied to NOBODY
6. Perhaps you ask the vet why he is withholding the info. He may have a very good reason for doing so, and you won't know the reason until you ask. It is easy to jump to conclusions and think the worst in people when you may not know the whole story.
7. the vet may be doing more research and looking for other options, or maybe consulting other sources about this case. I would talk to him about it in a none threatening manner. He may surprise you. If he really is lying to them and has no intention on telling them you could always gently lay a hint about them looking up the condition themselves on line or how you know of some other people that had something similar and got a second opinion and it was surprising what they found out. Just remember its the vets responsibility he has the degree and you may not know all the details. also consider if you get fired, will you be able to get a reference? will other vets want to work with you if they can't trust you? TALK TO YOUR BOSS!!!!!
8. How do you know it's terminal? Are you sure that the diagnosis is correct? First off, a lot of things are considered terminal, for instance, Feline Leukemia and FIV are terminal long term. However, the problems that arise in the short term are treatable and the pet may go on to live a fairly normal life. I would ask your vet, when no patients are around, why he hasn't told them that it is terminal. Maybe he's waiting to see how it responds to a particular treatment to ensure that the diagnosis is correct. Sometimes, it's easier of everyone involved to keep certain suspicions to yourself. Perhaps he knows if he tells them it's terminal they will have it euthanized right now, but, he's not 100% convinced that the diagnosis is correct. Then what? Then the pet gets put to sleep and it could have been treatable. Some things, for instance FIP are hard to diagnose. I've had a couple kittens diagnosed by the same vet as FIP that didn't have anything wrong with them. They grew up to adults and were fine. But, the rescue did their research and found out that it was just about impossible to diagnose FIP. So, they waited it out. He probably has a good reason for doing it, and asking when no one's around will probably save you quite a bit of embarrassment..
9. He's a vet you're a vet tech. Who has the experience. knowledge and responsibility for this ? ..not you. You need to ask him about the case if you have queries - not leap to conclusions. PS How do YOU know its terminal ? And does than mean next week, next month, next year ??