This petition is based on wrongful diagnosis of animals at the Langley Animal Clinic for financial gain as well as any other clinics prescribing medication that would further the problems without proper diagnosis. 

After a personal experience of bringing my dog in to the Langley Animal Clinic which will be described in detail further, I have decided to create a petition for anyone else who has experienced a similar situation as myself or maybe does not have pets, but wants to make a difference in our pet health care system. 

As many of us know, going to the vets office always ends in a heafty bill. We pay good money for the health of our pets while putting a great deal of trust into our doctors to receive information that is honest and ethical with our animals best interest at heart and utmost respect and sympathy.

We are paying anywhere from $50-$150 just for an exam. It is absolutely unacceptable to have a vet come to look at our pets for less than 5 minutes, not answer all our questions or in turn not ask questions regarding our animals health. All the meanwhile making it apparent they really do not care and leaving the exam room without even coming to a conclusion or even a step in the right direction.

When a client asks about medications and adverse effects it is under the veterinary code of ethics to be transparent and answer the questions honestly. If you haven't read the Veterinary Code of Ethics, I highly suggest you do.

My situation began when I had 2 of my dogs neutered. My one boy has dealt with itching for the past couple years but nothing serious so I chalked it up to be minor airborne allergies. 

After removing his cone he was to wear for 2 weeks after his surgery he began to itch to a complete extreme. Just overnight he managed to scratch himself so badly his skin broke, had an ear infection, had a very musty smell, greasy flaky skin and had itched his genitals to an extreme as well. I immediately made a vet appointment to see the vet as soon as possible to figure out what was going on with him.

Upon entering the exam room I had tons of questions and didn't want to leave a thing out. I had already prior done research on allergies so I figured I had all the right information to relay to the vet. 

The first thing she asked was if he had fleas. I said not that I know of but she proceeded to take a flea comb to him anyways - no fleas. She asked me if any of my other pets were itching (I have 2 other dogs, 2 cats and 3 horses) I said no. I then noted to her about the extreme itching of the genitals, the ear infection and the fact that his coat always had a really awful musty smell that increased significantly after being neutered. She examined his skin, saw the flaking and a rusty reddish tint to the fur around his pads.

I mentioned my concerns about allergies which she told me food allergies were uncommon versus airborne. Through all of this, she never mentioned any possible issues other than fleas which were non existant. So, she proscribed Bravecto (flea medication) to all 3 of my dogs followed by Apoquel which is a drug to help alleviate allergy symptoms. The total bill came to $420. 

To top that off, she made this 'diagnosis' in less than 5 minutes, didn't offer to do any sort of skin scraping or blood work and before I had finished speaking had opened the back room door while I was mid sentence cut off by the door closing. No goodbye, nothing.

Knowing that allergy medications can be very harmful to dogs, I immediately asked if there is any adverse effects of using it. She assured me it was totally safe. I trusted her. Shes a vet right? Further I was also prescribed antibiotics for his broken skin for itching along with ear cleaner and separate antibiotics for his ear. When I got to the till to pay I was asked by a vet assistant if I also wanted to purchase dog food. Why? I thought we were treating fleas no? I declined and said I would try the flea medication first and then taking other steps if I saw no improvement.

Upon getting home, as I always do, I looked up the medications I had just gave to my dog. The things I found were disturbing regarding Apoquel. If you wish to look up adverse effects of this drug, I encourage you to do so. 

After a few hours diving into some more research as at this point I'm still at a loss and wanting to help my dog. I then stumbled upon a very common infection dogs get. YEAST. 

If you don't know how common this is, I highly suggest you do some reading on it. 

ALL of the symptoms of yeast were there. All of them. The main cause of yeast build up? Antibiotics. Which would make perfect sense after being neutered. The other common symptoms? Musty smell of the coat, greasy and flaky skin, ear infections, itching of the genitals and rust colored hair on the pads. 

I immediately emailed my vet asking these questions upon which they never gave a solid answer to. I asked to be refunded for the Apoquel, antibiotics and flea medication which they refused and said I bought the flea medication as a preventive when my dogs have never had fleas and I have never given them flea treatment, so why would I start now? It was very clear I had bought it to treat for fleas as she seemed quite certain that was the cause...and she's the vet, so I trusted her. 

Concluding this story, I don't think many people realize just how often this happens. To say the vet didn't know what was wrong is an understatement. She knew. But instead of treating my dog with a shampoo that would kill the yeast, keep my dog safe and cost a very small fraction of the price I had just finished spending, she proscribed me more antibiotics which he didn't need along with a drug that she flat out lied about that would eventually end up harming my dog in deadly ways. 

To be clear, I'm not creating this petition for myself. Iam however dedicated to make a change and hopefully educate people on this particular issue and make a difference as a whole.

After 2 more weeks of being coned, using an antibacterial/antifungal shampoo every 4 days and a daily dosing of apple cider vinegar sprayed into his fur, yogurt in his diet to add probiotics and ACD orally as well, he has completely healed and is itch free, might I add without the use of antibiotics that were prescribed. His coat has already started filling in where he was losing hair from the constant itching as well.

I really hope this reaches people and people can be more educated on yeast in dogs as its so incredibly common and certain vets take advantage of this to sell their products and make pets sicker or proscribe things they already know won't help the issue so they come back to spend more dollars. Is every vet like this? Of course not, but let's educate ourselves. Vets make a lot of money off of 'allergies'. Ask yourself why if yeast is the most common issue, why is it not treated first? Especially with such concrete symptoms. 

This kind of in turn came as a blessing in disguise as I have started making a soap, for any pet that will keep them yeast free and healthy. I even use it on myself for my dry itchy scalp! I'm hoping to reach as many people as I can so they can help their pets. Worst case scenario of this soap is that it doesn't do anything but alleviate itching. But please, for the love of God, before pumping your dog full of medications, do your research and rule out yeast first. Even situations that aren't yeast related, ask questions, research what you are giving to your dog before you make things far worse then they were before. 

Not all vets are like this, but its our responsibility to understand that these things happen a lot more frequently then we realize because we have to put so much trust into our vets. Please share this as many times as you can so we can start setting a new standard where vets will think twice before handling situations this way.

One last thing - I made a list of questions to be answered such as asking for clinical evidence that Apoquel was safe for every day use, asking why I was proscribed flea medication when none of my animals have fleas, why they never considered a yeast infection when all the signs were there along with quite a few more that are all under law supposed to be answered. I have not yet in over a week and a half recieved answers to those questions. Ask yourself why.

I apologize for this being long, but I hope its heard. Thank you for listening!