A vet has been struck off after a bulldog was left blind when she left him unattended for three nights in a row following an operation.
Anne Mary Mullen did not properly monitor beloved pet Boycie after surgery, a professional tribunal heard.
The tribunal heard Mrs Mullen was ‘foolhardy’ to leave the dog without her undivided attention as she carried out a dental procedure on another dog while Boycie recovered from anaesthesia.
The English bulldog - which experts said needed round the clock attention after such an op - ended up suffering with brain damage that led to blindness.
In addition a labrador called Cleo died following sterilisation surgery after Mrs Mullen sent her home her too early and gave her incorrect wound dressing, the tribunal heard.
The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons stuck Mrs Mullen off the register for breaching animal welfare in her treatment of the two dogs.
The tribunal heard four-month-old Boycie was taken by its unnamed owner to Mrs Mullen’s clinic, called Annemull in Aveley, Essex, for eye surgery in October 2019.
Boycie suffered from ‘cherry eye’ which is when an eyelid gland pops out and appears as a red swollen mass on the lower eyelid.
When the dog’s owner spoke to Mrs Mullen, there was no discussion about any of the risks of the surgery or the anaesthetic, the tribunal heard.
She also did not give him any kind of printed information, nor ask him to sign a consent form.
After the surgery, Mrs Mullen performed a dental procedure on another small dog while Boycie recovered from the anaesthesia.
In an expert report produced for the tribunal, vet Dr Christine Shield said: “It would be foolhardy to leave an English Bulldog without undivided attention until fully recovered from anaesthesia and able to hold his head up unassisted, and I would regard such conduct as falling below the standard expected of a reasonably competent veterinary surgeon.
“Any anaesthesia of an English Bulldog carries additional risks, due to their respiratory deformities.”
The tribunal ruled that, whilst recovering from the anaesthetic, Boycie suffered from a lack of oxygen and consequential brain damage, which caused blindness.
It said: “Leaving such a dog without constant monitoring whilst recovering from anaesthesia is wholly unacceptable and in fact, was the cause of brain damage to Boycie.”
After the surgery, Mrs Mullen left Boycie alone in her surgery for three nights and did not offer the owners any alternative options such as transferring the dog to a different clinic where he could be looked after by overnight staff.
Dr Shield said: “Alternative arrangements would have been either to transfer Boycie’s care to another practice where he could have received round-the-clock care from qualified staff, or to return him to the care of his owners overnight, to be readmitted the following morning.
"Clearly the owners could have offered no medical care, but Boycie was receiving none anyway whilst alone overnight.
“Either of those options would have been preferable to leaving Boycie alone and unsupervised.”
Also in 2019, Mrs Mullen was found to have discharged pet Cleo too soon after her spaying procedure with a bandage that was too tight around the wound.
Dr Shield’s report said: “It would be unusual to discharge a patient so soon after major surgery.
"Most practices would prefer to wait until the anaesthetic medication had largely worn off and the patient was sufficiently recovered to be confident that no complications, such as delayed bleeding, had arisen.
“It seems to me that Cleo was discharged from Mrs Mullen’s practice far sooner after the operation than her condition and common prudence would justify.”
The tribunal heard Cleo struggled to walk and Mrs Mullen ‘dragged’ her when handing he back over to her owners.
Cleo then fell ill and her owners were left to their own devices to find a different vet as there was no information about the clinic’s out of hours services on their answering machine or on any form of post-operative information sheet.
Cleo’s owners took her to a different practice as she could not stand up and struggled to walk. Blood tests indicated the dog had suffered severe blood loss and Cleo had to be taken into surgery where she died in theatre.
Striking Mrs Mullen off the veterinary surgeons register, the tribunal said: “Animal welfare lies at the heart of the veterinary profession.
“Mrs Mullen’s treatment of Cleo and Boycie constitutes a breach of this fundamental tenet of the profession.
“Mrs Mullen’s conduct is so serious that removal of professional status is the only means of protecting animals and in the wider public interest.”
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