Who did This to Suki? How Edward J. Nichols, DVM, Crestway Animal Clinic, San Antonio, Texas, "treated" Suki to death -- and got away with it

Official allegations against Nichols from the Texas State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners

Texas Residents, Are All Veterinary Boards Alike? What You Need to Know 

Coming links:

Suki's Patient Chart

Suki's Lab Work, March 22, 1999

Suki's Lab Work, April 19, 1999

Suki's Treatment and Lab Work from Second Opinion Vets Who  Administered Proper Care 

Notes From the Vet's Disciplinary Conference, Austin, Texas, August 17, 2000

Although she was a victim of veterinary negligence and incompetence, she's actually a survivor. She lived long enough to leave evidence of the medical abuse that was inflicted upon her between a four-week period from March 22 to April 19, 1999. No one could have expected a cat her age to do that -- least of all her "doctor." 

What this vet did to Suki is almost incomprehensible by any moral or ethical standards, yet every piece of proof shows how he systematically broke her down in order to keep me from getting treatments for her that he didn't believe in. It just took him longer than he planned.

By living through his protracted neglect, Suki turned out to be living, dying proof of what he had done, as proven by the initial lab work on March 22: With a creatinine of 6.6, the vet began deliberately dehydrating her for four suffering weeks, starting with his own decrease in her usual subQs from 100 to 60 (patient chart entry, 3/22/99), withholding both IV fluids and underprescribing home subQs -- all methods of dehydration that took her count to 9.0 by April 19 (labwork, 4/19/99). After administering a single shot of Winstrol on March 24 (patient chart entry, 3/24/99), he withheld any further treatment for anemia. Her potassium was 3.5 and he stopped her Tumil-K, telling me it was "perfect" and "you won't have to bother with that potassium any more." 

While Suki continued to live her life -- walking, talking (Siamese), eating, drinking (a lot), playing, and going for her daily walks with me -- for four weeks between March 22 and April 19 -- he did no lab work or other tests, claiming they weren't necessary. His mantra was "we could do lab work, it makes the lab happy, they like the business." I didn't care about the cost, I wanted Suki to have everything she needed -- as she always had -- but I did not know his perverse philosophy of "protecting" the public against "greedy" vets no matter what it cost the animal in terms of suffering or loss of life. If a vet said Suki needed lab work, she got it. If a vet said Suki didn't need lab work, I didn't question it because I wouldn't know what tests to demand even if it had occurred to me that a vet would be withholding monitoring. This "doctor" constantly reassured me that Suki was fine. 

What I didn't know about this vet's personal hidden agenda and tactics -- and his methods of switching and increasing steroids to mask her decline -- ended up costing Suki her life while he destroyed her right under my nose. 

As it turned out, Suki had CRF (chronic renal failure), hypokalemia (low potassium), and anemia. Not a single one of these diagnoses appear anywhere in Suki's medical records at any time. The omissions of those diagnoses were deliberate: I always got copies of lab work, and because I would ask questions about Suki's condition and treatment, this vet created a "treatment" plan that a layperson would have no way of knowing was completely substandard and eventually fatal. 

Sloppy records weren't anything new for him: When I finally saw Suki's patient chart, it proved that for three years he had recorded no diagnoses except arthritis.  There were no notes of any exams. He recorded no symptoms anywhere until he wrote "v. dehydrated" on her chart on April 19, 1999. For three years, there were repeated omissions of the names and dosages of prescription drugs, no prescription noted for home subQs, omissions of weight and temperature, and omission of all symptoms and changes in behavior reported by me. Nowhere in her file was there any result of any PE (physical examination), behavior, or condition of my cat. Suki's entire exam history for three years was a single piece of paper, front and back -- sloppy, shabby, incomplete -- and ending with the words "multiple organ shutdown." Circled.  

Worse, over that last four week period, he had manipulated types and dosages of steroids to mask the medical torture and keep Suki going despite her internal organs shutting down. And more importantly, to control what I knew and didn't know in order to keep me from getting Suki proper treatment.  He was going to get his way, no matter how long he had to continue the torture.

Prolonged and deliberate cruelty, repeated incompetence, continued negligence, fraud, lying to a client, misrepresenting treatment -- the list is endless -- all carried out under the illusion of treatment that a trusting pet guardian would never recognize. When I informed him at one point that I wanted everything done for Suki, as I always had, he looked directly at me and lied: "You don't have to worry! We're going to do everything we can for her!" And I believed him. His complete and total abuse of my trust allowed this "doctor" to accelerate Suki's death by any means necessary as he gave himself permission and absolution to do whatever he wanted. 

But Suki was not an easy kill. It took four weeks and seven different documented methods of medical mistreatment to get her to the point of collapse -- no doubt a big surprise to this vet who expected her to die on his timetable, not merely collapse. 

If you're a vet, what do you do with a cat who won't die, knowing that you have a client who trusts you, to whom you have promised to do "everything," but who is asking questions? You can't even do lab work -- the client will get copies as she always does and will start asking questions. What do you do?

First, keep stalling lab work. What the client doesn't know won't hurt her, right? Then, when the cat collapses -- inevitable considering the lack of treatment -- you have your mother (your receptionist) tell the guardian to bring the cat in and leave her there. Then when the guardian is safely off the premises, without the guardian's knowledge or consent, you take the cat and put her in a plastic box, gas her, and perform a tooth extraction and teeth cleaning, knowing full well that the cat is too old to undergo such a procedure in her condition, especially with no pre- or post-surgical protocol. 

You put a 20-year-old collapsed cat under anesthesia -- "v. dehydrated" (you write that in your own hand on her chart), anemic, hypokalemic -- with no IV fluids, no presurgical lab work, no pre-anesthetic evaluation, no potassium supplementation, no treatment for anemia, and no consent from the cat's guardian. 

You do all of this knowing the guardian has no idea what you are doing, and trusts you to do the "everything" you promised. But the only thing you're dedicated to is getting your way. You don't speak with the guardian that day until hours afterward, knowing that your mother has instructed the guardian to call hours later, and come back mid-afternoon for an "appointment." You have plenty of time to do whatever you feel like. Or not. You are completely in control and totally in charge of continuing the systematic medical torture of the previous four weeks...

But this "doctor" still wasn't through with Suki.   She was still alive. He knew I would be coming for her, and if she wasn't going to die on his schedule, what then? 

After the unauthorized surgery, Suki was left in a cage to die, severely dehydrated, still collapsed, with a crashed system in "multiple organ shutdown" (his patient chart entry of April 19, 1999, based on labwork performed post-surgically).    

Like he had done 12 days before, this vet -- while still continuing to deliberately withhold every humane treatment from a dying, anemic, hypokalemic, dehydrated cat in renal failure -- pumped Suki full of steroid (patient chart entry, one (1) milligram dexamethasone, 4/19/99). The dex would serve his purpose -- deceiving me into thinking Suki was better than she was. The steroid he had used 12 days earlier was Depo-Medrol (.5 mg, patient chart entry, 4/7/99) - a longer-acting steroid in a larger dose than Suki had ever received in her life. 

The records prove that April 19 was simply a continuation of his four-week deception, as he withheld, stalled, or manipulated treatment that it turns out he doesn't believe in, while using whatever steroid in whatever dosage that would serve his purposes at the time. A milligram of dex, injected post-surgically into a dying cat with no other treatment administered, would certainly do the trick. Suki would look better, while her organs were shutting down inside. This vet was going to get his way, no matter what it took.

But his vicious determination still couldn't kill her. Suki was far stronger than even he bargained for. Whatever mistake I made in trusting this "doctor," he made an even bigger one in underestimating Suki. 

Despite everything he had put her through on that day, combined with the four weeks of deliberate withholding of humane treatment and lack of monitoring, Suki refused to die. And I was completely clueless, never imagining he had operated on her under anesthesia and having no idea he was pumping Suki full of steroid. Her usual dose was an occasional .2 dex - a treatment plan put in place by her previous vet due to vestibular syndrome. This current "vet" simply continued that treatment, until he decided unilaterlly that Suki should be tortured to death rather than see her treated humanely. 

When he didn't come to the phone when I called (one of his techs told me that Suki was "fine!" and I could come and get her), I went to his clinic to find out what was going on. It was 15 minutes before a tech brought Suki out to me. Then the "doctor" kept both of us waiting an additional hour before he saw us. 

After finally making an appearance, telling me that her potassium was "shot," he instructed me to take her home and "be with her." 

On the afternoon of April 19, after Suki had lay dying in this "doctor's" clinic for more than six hours, this vet wanted to send my dying (unknown to me) cat home with me, filled with dex (unknown to me) and completely deprived of all standard treatments -- IV fluids, potassium, Winstrol, and Epogen (unknown to me and in deliberate and direct opposition to my wishes to do "everything"). No matter how many questions I asked, trying to make sense out of what had happened, and still not realizing the full extent of the four-week torture he had carried out to control my decisions, he would give some vague, convoluted non-answer, refusing to address directly anything regarding proper treatment. He finally shrugged and said to take her home and "be with her." 

At one point, he reached across the table, took my hands with suspiciously phony tears welling in his eyes, and said "You, my friend, have done everything you can do." It was a bizarre performance that had no connection to anything that was happening or had happened in the four weeks prior. I pulled my hands away, telling him it didn't feel like everything. 

He then tried another tactic. He said that Suki was no longer aware of her surroundings. I asked him what he was talking about. I looked at Suki. She was completely aware, as she remained throughout it all, but she was in trouble and I had no idea how she had gotten that way. Why was he lying about Suki's level of awareness? Why did he want me to think that she was unaware of her surroundings? And how had things gotten so bad so quickly? Bad enough for this vet to be telling me to take her home and be with her? Suki's front paws were twisted, facing upwards, her back legs were entwined like rope. 

But I kept going. All I could think of was Suki. When I begged for treatment -- Winstrol? More subQs? IV fluids? he ignored me. Not being a doctor, I didn't know what to suggest, I was just throwing things out  -- anything that would help her. He shrugged once again and said "we could go that route if you want." Then he said he could be wrong - maybe Suki would be bouncing around by tomorrow! Watching this vet go from a fake crying episode, telling me to take her home and be with her, to suddenly brightening and telling me that Suki might be bouncing around the following day was beyond any sane explanation.

At no time did he even tell me about the anesthesia. His tech had inadvertently given me that information while I waited for them to bring Suki out to the waiting room. This vet had performed a totally unauthorized surgery on Suki under dangerous anesthesia. Suki could not tolerate any type or amount as confirmed by her previous vet, and this vet knew it. I would have never given consent to anesthesia, and he knew that too. In fact, Suki's annual teeth cleanings had stopped in 1995 by her previous vet for that very reason -- and this present "doctor" had also switched to hand scaling without anesthesia, fully aware that Suki could not have anesthesia at her age and with her preexisting conditions (vestibular disorder with CNS involvement), much less when she was in renal failure. Why had he put her under anesthesia on this particular day?

Had his tech not casually mentioned the anesthesia, I would have never known until I paid the bill and saw "anesthesia" on it. (He later bragged to the state investigators during his disciplinary conference: "I didn't even charge her for the tooth extraction!" Based on my own experience and conversations with other clients, this vet is always eager to let people know how he is not like those "greedy" vets out to gouge people.)

And now, on April 19, 1999, after I followed his instructions for four weeks as he reassured me that Suki was doing fine, this "doctor" was telling me it was over? He walked over to the far wall, leaned against it, folded his arms, crossed one foot over his other ankle, and watched me closely as I begged for help, trying to figure out what had happened to my cat. He, of course, could afford to sit back and enjoy the show: He knew exactly what had happened to my cat, because he had singlehandedly instigated whatever methods of medical abuse he needed to make sure Suki did not get treated. He knew. 

But I didn't. My only goal on April 19 was to get Suki away from this "doctor." 

When I packed Suki up in her carrier to leave, he sprang to life, admonishing me, "Don't put her in a hospital! It's cold and impersonal and you don't want it to happen that way!" Why was this "doctor" telling me what I did and didn't want, especially with regard to my most precious companion? Because based on the kind of owner/guardian I was, he had known all along what I would do with a sick Suki, when that day came, and he didn't want it. HE didn't want it. As it turned out, based on what he admitted to me later, that was his main motive. 

At that time I didn't yet know about the dex, which was creating the illusion of strength and wellness. Unknown to me -- and with the help of this "doctor" -- Suki was now hours from death. But I knew none of that at the time. I simply wondered how we had ended up with the stupidest vet in the universe. I was to find out later that stupidity was this "doctor's" best quality. Suki could have survived a stupid vet. She didn't have a chance against one determined to get his way, using medical abuse, lies, manipulations, and steroids to create an illusion, to make sure I didn't get Suki treated properly because HE didn't believe in it. Controlling me, controlling my decisions -- that was what his arrogance and cruelty were all about. But I didn't know any of that then. All I knew was that a vet had operated on my cat, under anesthesia, without my permission or even informing me of it. This so-called "doctor" was no longer going to be anywhere near Suki. He had hurt her, and badly. 

By the next morning, Suki was in bad shape, and the vet (unknown to me) was also withholding the lab work that came into his office 35 minutes after Suki and I left.  He had that lab work in his possession and kept the results from me. 

The reason Suki was looking worse was, as I found out later from another vet, the dex would have worn off about that time the next morning. The day after Suki's day in hell with this "doctor," I got Suki to a hospital, where her new vet immediately began treatments that should have been given to Suki four weeks earlier, at exactly the same time the first "vet" began his systematic torture of her so that I would not, as he had instructed me the day before, "put her in a hospital."

There was one minor hitch: Suki's new vet needed her potassium count in order to know the type of IV to hook her up to -- potassium chloride or sodium chloride. When I called the "doctor" who had tortured her to get that information - knowing that the lab results had to be in by now and not knowing they had come in the day before - his very flustered, fidgety, not-too-bright mother tried to find out where we were, where Suki was, where I was calling from. I refused to tell her anything. She became more agitated and said the doctor (her son) really needed to talk to me. I told her I didn't have time to talk to her son; I needed Suki's lab work and potassium count now. She stalled even more, trying to get me to tell her where we were. After repeatedly trying to find out my location, the vet's mother finally released the information that I needed. At no time did the "doctor" come to the phone. 

I found out later that the lab work had come in the previous afternoon, the day of the unauthorized surgery (time stamp April 19, 4:17 p.m.). Again unknown to me, and confirmed by the lab, the vet had put a rush on Suki's blood taken after his surgery on her. Knowing the kind of owner/guardian I am based on Suki's previous medical history, he knew I would get Suki immediate help, and he didn't want that, so he kept the seriousness of Suki's condition from me. Instead of faxing them to me as he had always done (whenever he would agree to do lab work in the first place, that is), he withheld the results from me when they came in after he had sent Suki and me home to die, or bounce around, or whatever version he was trying to sell at the time. 

Withholding that lab work from me and any doctors who might be trying to help Suki was key as he stole even more hours from Suki as she lay dying - but pumped full of dex. In his own written statement to investigators, he cleverly refers to "reviewing" the lab results the following morning and claiming he recommended immediate hospitalization, conveniently leaving out the fact that the lab had come in 35 minutes after Suki and I had left, and conveniently leaving out that Suki had in fact been "admitted" to his clinic (written statement) and yet did not receive any treatment consistent with hospitalization for a kidney patient. (This "doctor's" lies are on every page of his written response to the state board investigators.) 

Now Suki was in a hospital, the place where the "doctor" had instructed me the day before, and later that same morning on the phone, not to put Suki in. For the next seven days, one stubborn little Siamese fought bravely and without complaint in a hospital that neither one of us had ever set foot in. But there was no time to go vet shopping. I had to trust these new vets while still trying to figure out what her "doctor" had done to her. I got lucky -- the new doctors were professional, competent, and treated both Suki and me with the utmost respect. I signed every consent form in the place (something that the "doctor" had never used) and told them that whatever Suki needed, she was to get no matter what the cost.

Realizing that Suki was still alive - why would I need a potassium count on a dead cat? - the "doctor" began calling me, calls that continued all that week as he demanded to know where Suki was, telling me to bring her home and "be with her," trying to tell me again that she wasn't aware of her surroundings, screaming at me at the top of his lungs SUKI IS DYING, telling me that those "idiots," as he called the doctors helping Suki, were "stealing your money." He began screaming at me, "You can't reverse the laws of physics!" He was completely frustrated and enraged that I would not tell him where Suki was, and worse, I was not following his orders to not get her treated. HE didn't want her treated, so his attitude was why should I?

The more he screamed, the more it became clear that what had happened to Suki was no accident. Up until then the concept of deliberate and malicious medical abuse had never occurred to me. Never. There was a good reason for that -- it was unthinkable. What vet would do that? His frantic phone calls, however, with instructions to bring her home, were telling the real story. Why was he so panicked that Suki was being seen by other vets? Why was he insisting that I stop all treatment and bring her home immediately? Everything that I explained to him that the new vets were doing, he continued to argue with me about Suki's treatment. Nothing he said made any sense, and it completely contradicted what Suki's new vets were telling me.  

As insane and inexplicable as it was, it finally occurred to me that the only reason this "doctor" could be arguing with me is that something had gone very wrong -- for him. This was not a vet concerned with patient welfare, this was not a vet the least bit concerned that Suki needed to be in a hospital. It was the complete opposite: He knew Suki was in a hospital and had specifically instructed me the day before not to put her there. This was a vet completely enraged that a client had somehow managed to get her pet help when he had done so much, as he finally admitted in that conversation, to make sure that was never going to happen. As this horrifying conversation unfolded, he was very clear in his philosophy about the futility of treating kidney patients. Too bad he hadn't clued me in sooner, but had he done so, he knows I would have found another vet immediately. His screwball philosophy didn't bother me nearly as much as his sense of entitlement to destroy my cat, no matter what.  His need to control everything and everybody had obviously caught up with him, not because I caught him, but because Suki had. Her refusal to die had landed her in sight of real vets who began immediate and correct treatments, and it was apparently driving this furious "doctor" round the bend. 

When it finally hit, it was incomprehensible. As I confirmed with him, with regard to the withholding of all the same treatments the new vets were giving Suki, I asked him a pointed question, "you knew exactly what you were doing?" and never expecting to hear the chilling answer he gave: "Yes." It was beyond insanity that any human being, much less a doctor, could have done so much deliberate damage to an innocent animal -- somebody's beloved companion. After trying three manipulative, self-serving "explanations" for what he had done, each one making less sense than the last and every one I questioned, he finally, in frustration, ended up screaming "You agreed! You agreed!" in order to try to convince me that I had given him permission to destroy my cat, slowly, over whatever period it took. He even put in his written statement to investigators that he believed that I knew what was happening and was okay with it. It was interesting and very telling that he never denied withholding treatment, he just tried to sell the story that I knew what he was doing all along and it was okay with me, so he kept doing it.   

It was completely insane. The cruelty that had been inflicted on Suki was truly beyond comprehension. This "doctor" was trying to convince me that I had agreed with everything he had done. He was desperate. How could I agree to fraud? How could I agree to a lie? How could I agree to substandard care that would kill my cat on a personal, hidden timetable? How could a guardian like me, with almost 20 years' worth of records on a cat who had always had everything she ever needed, have taken my cat four times in a four-week period to a vet with the "understanding" that he was to do me a favor by destroying her in however many ways it took -- including anesthesia, surgery, and whatever steroids necessary to create the illusion of wellness while simultaneously withholding humane treatment? 

When I thought that things couldn't possibly get any worse, this "doctor" began lecturing me. He condescendingly gave me the following instruction: "I want you to remember one word - natural. Can you do that? Can you remember that one word? Natural."

Natural.

This "doctor" had 1) deprived Suki of IV fluids over an extended period of time that the hospital vets and consulting vets confirmed that she had needed, even before the surgical procedure in which he continued to deliberately keep them from her as well,  2) deliberately underprescribed home subQs (100 ccs every third day and no more) and repeatedly left that prescription information off her chart for four consecutive weeks, 3) administered one shot of Winstrol on March 24 to make me believe she was receiving treatment for anemia, claiming she would get a future shot but never administering it, 4) cut off her Tumil-K supplementation on March 24, leaving off any traces of the prescription or its discontinuance in her medical records, 5) never at any time recommended Epogen or anything comparable to treat anemia - Suki didn't get Epogen until her admittance to a real hospital,  6) successfully stalled lab work for four weeks, knowing I always got copies of it faxed to me and -- even though I cannot interpret a lab report -- also knowing I would question any changes I might see, 6) put a collapsed, very dehydrated, anemic, dying Suki under anesthesia while she was in renal failure (creatinine 9.0), potassium 2.9, a phosphorous count of 17, a crashed liver, with absolutely NO supportive surgical protocol such as presurgical lab work, IV fluids, potassium, Winstrol, or Epogen, to perform a teeth cleaning and extraction 7) pumped Suki full of a powerful steroid in the absence of all other standard of care. 

This "vet" had done everything to Suki but whack her senseless, and now he was instructing me to remember the word "natural." When I told him that he had done nothing more than run out her clock, and that he had taken away my choices, is when he made the statement that confirmed his guilt: "I was trying to make things easier on her and on you." That was his explanation for torturing her to death. Apparently, killing her slowly now was better than my putting her in a hospital to be treated humanely using a standard of care that he didn't believe in. He never denied doing anything to Suki that I accused him of. In the end, the only place left for him to go was "You agreed!" because he had to shift all responsibility to me for what he alone had done to my cat. It was an act of complete cowardice, and not the last I would witness from this "doctor." 

I told him to never do this to another human or animal as long he lived, to never put anyone else through what he was putting Suki and me through, but he continued his ranting about how I needed to stop her treatment. I finally hung up on him, after telling him that he was never to contact me again in any way, and that he was to stay away from Suki. I told him, "I hope you rot in hell," to which he kind of snorted and replied "Awwww..." in order to downplay what he had done to my cat. The hospital vets were informed of this call, and they noted in Suki's file that no information was to be released to him at my request. None of them had any explanation for his "treatment." They were doing the complete opposite of what he had done, treating her, monitoring her, and keeping me informed at every step. And this "doctor" wanted me to believe that THEY were the "idiots."  

Miraculously, Suki was on the comeback trail. She was exceptionally weak and depleted, but she was finally getting everything she needed, everything that had been withheld from her for four torturous weeks by a "doctor" trying to "make things easier" on her while he lied to my face about what was really going on, confident that Suki would be dead before I could do anything he didn't personally approve of. 

At the hospital, her lab results were either perfectly in balance or heading in the right direction. Her creatinine was down to 4.63, still high but nowhere near the 9.0 the "vet" had forced her to over four weeks of deliberate dehydration; her reticulocyte count was 4.0 - up from the 0.2 that the "vet" had left her in while withholding Winstrol and Epogen; she was being rehydrated by daily IV fluids (I brought her home every night but one), something she never at any time in three years got from the "vet"; her potassium was 4.2, up from the 2.9 the "vet" had forced her down to after stopping her Tumil-K and continuing to withhold it from her the day of the unauthorized surgery despite twisted limbs and paws facing upwards. Most of all, she had competent, ethical vets who were recommending actual treatments with me and waiting for my decisions regarding their recommendations, instead of pompously telling me what I did and didn't want or doing things in secret to make Suki suffer so they could get their way. As the week progressed, the sickening picture came into place: Suki's hospital lab work proved that what Nichols had done was deliberate. Not even the most incompetent vet on earth could have "accidentally" done everything wrong, withheld every treatment, and then gassed her and operated on her while she was officially dying of renal failure.  

It seemed impossible, but she was actually beating the  "doctor" who believed so strongly in "natural" death that he had to use seven different methods to achieve it. Watching her, it was beyond unbearable to gradually understand what destruction had been done to her by a "doctor" who would do whatever it took to get his way, never counting on her being seen by real vets. It certainly explained all of his screaming at me. He must have known that the hospital vets would immediately recognize what he had done. When I saw the look on their faces as I related the previous four weeks, and they saw the bookended lab work at each end of those four weeks (Mary 22-April 19, 1999), that's when the full picture fell into place. Ultimately, this vet's admission to me that he knew what he was doing all along was the final piece of the puzzle. To this day, it still defies all reason how he could defend his atrocities by claiming he was doing for us what he considered a favor. How many other pets and people is this vet doing "favors" for? How many pets are lying in Crestway Animal Clinic being deprived of standard, humane treatments that this "doctor" doesn't believe in while he lies to their guardians' faces and smiles the entire time, confident of their trust and basking in their adoration that he isn't like those "greedy" vets out to steal their money? What he conveniently leaves out is that he is not treating their pets properly. That's why his bills are so low. The pets are dying (with a little help from him and what he refers to as "my good friend St. Francis"), he's defining it as natural even if he has to put them in a box and gas them, and the guardians are as clueless as I was. But Suki outsmarted him. She became the cat who wouldn't die. 

At the hospital, for a while, Suki was like the tiny seed of a miracle in the making. She even stood up again, and walked for a few seconds. Every small victory was a cause for celebration. Suki was coming back. Her new doctor, filled with hope and positive energy, and armed with all the tools of competent, skilled veterinary care, tried diligently to get her back to the point where she should have gotten the treatments four weeks earlier. Her new primary vet was also a licensed acupuncturist, and Suki received one acupuncture treatment in conjunction with every traditional treatment. She was responding, but Suki had a lot of catching up to do. 

Suki now had a real doctor  -- someone who looked not at her age but at her life; a doctor who saw not a worthless old cat but a living, sentient being entitled to quality care; a doctor who was less interested in numbers on a calendar than the will to live shining through a pair of beautiful blue eyes. A real doctor -- one not interested in furthering his own selfish hidden agenda at any cost but in affording this incredibly strong and formidable cat every chance at life. 

And Suki was formidable. Her life force was incredible and tangible, as anyone who ever knew Suki can attest to. Every real vet who had ever treated her knew this, and her hospital records prove a cat responding remarkably to all treatments, even at that late date and after weeks of medical abuse during which she was forced to deplete her considerable resources at the hands of a vet who believed in "natural" death no matter what pain and suffering he had to inflict to get it.

It seemed impossible that Suki was beating this "doctor," and in the end, it was. Not even the indomitable Suki and four conscientious vets -- plus a fifth who consulted, and her previous vet who later saw her chart and lab work -- were any match for a veterinarian who had been determined to destroy her, performing an accelerated, pre-emptive kill using medical manipulation in order to achieve her "natural" death and control what he knew would be my decisions -- to afford her every chance at life for as long as she wanted to and to respect my choices regarding her health care. This "doctor" knew nothing about respect for anything or anybody but his own selfish agenda. If he had to force Suki into her "natural" death prematurely in order to control me -- after all, you can't treat a dead cat -- then his actions prove he felt entitled to inflict any amount of bodily harm he needed to. 

My choices, Suki's choices, were irrelevant to him because HE knew better. Better than I, Suki's sole guardian for almost 20 years; better than Suki, who had proven from her medical history how strong and resilient she was; better than any other vet, better than God, better than everybody. 

Suki had been admitted to the hospital with a fractured jaw.  It now was completely broken, hanging from her regal and once-beautiful face. A hospital vet who knew about the "doctor's" dental surgery the previous day ("SX" patient chart entry, 4/19/99)), told me that it wouldn't have taken much to break tiny, old bones during the inexplicable procedures of a tooth extraction and teeth cleaning (invoice, 4/19/99). The broken jaw was the ultimate insult to Suki's body, on top of everything else that had been done to her by a "doctor" who never gave up destroying her in order to fit her into the category of "natural" death. 

Because of her age, it's easy to jump to the conclusion that Suki was already dying when the vet started his deliberate mistreatment on March 22. She wasn't. That was confirmed by the hospital vets who saw the lab work of that day. They confirmed that she had definitely needed what they called "standard frontline defense" for kidney failure. What they couldn't explain is why Suki had received none of that, especially after seeing me with her and knowing what kind of guardian I was. The thought that I would have denied Suki anything was ridiculous. There is no vet anywhere who can or will confirm that -- except the "vet" who destroyed her as that was the only way he could escape all accountability for his actions. He claimed in his disciplinary conference that I had withheld permission for every humane treatment over four weeks (apparently taking my cat to a vet four times in four weeks so that she would not be treated, according to him), but when she collapsed on April 19, 1999, I had told his mother that he could operate on Suki under anesthesia if he "felt" like it, prior to his even examining her that day. Yeah, right. 

What really happened was beyond explanation, and illustrated an individual so fully capable of systematic, slow, methodical torture and animal cruelty that the thought of his hands on innocent animals every day should make anyone's blood run cold. Despite his absurd lecture to me on April 22, 1999, (phone conversation) about "natural" death, this "doctor" didn't just let an old cat die. He medically forced her into a terminal situation based on that initial lab work on March 22, 1999. The records prove that he took a viable animal, capable of responding to standard humane treatment, and performed what amounted to a slow, prolonged euthanasia of his own method and design while stopping any monitoring that would have alerted me to her decline. One minor problem: It took much longer than he thought. And then, when Suki would not die fast enough for him, and my questions were inadvertently becoming too close for comfort -- inflicted incalculable suffering using anesthesia, surgery, and steroids while continuing to withhold humane treatment. And then, as if all of that weren't bad enough, hiding behind the word "natural" when caught.  Through four visits in four weeks, he had watched her and watched me, knowing that the former was slowly dying and the latter was trusting him. Not trusting him because he was him. Trusting him only because he was a vet. 

The new vets who tried to help Suki were the antithesis of the monster who had deliberately destroyed her. Suki's new vet at the hospital was her last stroke of good luck on this earth. He was the best of both worlds, combining traditional and complementary methods to do the "everything" that I had always wanted for Suki and every vet who ever treated her knew that. 

Suki fought to live, with dignity and grace and a dogged determination that was the hallmark of her entire life. But it was too late. The body that had been tortured and manipulated by dehydration, untreated anemia, potassium depletion, anesthesia, surgery, and the methodical switch from short-acting to long-acting steroids to control patient appearance while humane treatment was being withheld or misrepresented -- that body could not survive. Nor could I allow Suki's battle to continue. We had lost. Along with the rest of Suki's future, any chance at a death with dignity was stolen from us by a "doctor" who had decided her life was over while she was still busy living it, and had deliberately deceived me knowing that I would do whatever necessary to provide Suki with whatever she needed, as I always had. 

Suki tried. I tried. Her new doctors tried. It was too late. Her weakness, brought about by a so-called "doctor" who literally watched her weakening over four weeks as he deceived without conscience or ethics, was overwhelming. There was nothing left to do but say goodbye. To try to put into a few seconds' time the expression of  love and joy of almost 20 years.  Suki fought until the end, trying so hard to get back to the life that she loved -- one that she was entitled to in the same way that she was entitled to proper, ethical, competent care, no matter what her age and no matter what the  selfish and unspeakably cruel philosophy of a vet who had no right, reason, or permission to do what he did.  

Suki died as she had lived -- in the arms of the only human who had been privileged to share every day in the life of this remarkable, extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime cat. Suki was beautiful, smart, funny, silly, grumpy, exasperating, and sweet--a complex creature full of life and energy. She never hurt a soul, and did nothing in her entire life to deserve the systematic, malicious, and utterly vile slow death that this "doctor" carried out while he thoroughly enjoyed my unconditional trust. His repeated actions and records show a pattern of unilateral decisions that he ultimately tried to blame on me, his mother, his staff, the vet he bought his clinic from, and even Suki herself. Watching him in his disciplinary conference in Austin, evading questions, shifting blame, giving his non-answers, I couldn't help but think of the saying, "Cowards die a thousand times. The brave die but once." 

Suki died once. She left this earth with my words in her ear, a final kiss to her furry head, an apology to her for trusting a monster, and a promise that everything would be done to make sure that not one more animal or human would suffer at the hands of this type of "doctor." This web site is a part of that promise.

Suki hated tears. Her whole life, any tears would cause her to walk away as if to say, call me when you get over it. I had tried so hard to hide them from her for the seven days she fought to get her life back. She had no use for pity, instead living her life with incomparable dignity and incredible strength. In life, she was surrounded by the only things that matter -- love, peace, hope, grace, a family who doted on her, and an enormous circle of friends both real and cyber. In death, her soul is bonded forever to a human who loved her -- and was loved by her -- more than words can say. As anyone who has a companion animal soulmate will tell you, I didn't just love Suki with all my heart. She was my heart -- and my roommate, my soulmate, my writing partner, my best friend, and now, my guiding spirit. 

Almost twenty years sounds like a long time for a cat to grace the earth -- the more cynical would say too long -- but Suki was by no means through with her life. It was stolen from her piece by piece, by someone who took whatever he wanted -- public trust as a licensee of the state, client trust if he felt entitled, and worst of all, my Suki. Why did he do it? Because he wanted to, and because he could. He is a "vet," and people trust him. 

The monster can't hurt Suki anymore. But he, and others like him, are still out there every day. Negligent, incompetent, abusive vets who can destroy our pets' bodies, but not their spirits. They can steal our pets' lives, but not their legacies. They can get away with murder, but they can never escape themselves.

Suki's gift is that her story has already helped other pets, and it will continue to do so. She lives on in every companion animal who is lucky enough to have careful, compassionate, skilled, ethical veterinary care. She lives on in every guardian's desire to learn as much as they can -- to get second, third, and yes, even fourth and fifth  opinions. She lives on in every dedicated pet guardian who knows that knowledge is power, and that sharing that knowledge with others is the most powerful weapon we have to keep our animal companions safe. 

This is Suki. She was my cat. 

--Julie Catalano

© The Veterinary Abuse Network