Vet prolonged my dying cat's pain

I am beginning to come to terms with the fact that my cat, my companion for 15 years, is gone. My grief is not so much because she is gone, but because of the unnecessary pain she endured during her last two days; pain that could have been avoided were it not for a vet's behaviour.

Late one evening, my cat started breathing rapidly and refused to eat or drink.

I thought of the unusual behaviour I had observed in my cat during the past months, searched the internet and arrived at a diagnosis: kidney failure.

The next morning, I called a vet, asking him to make a home visit and put her to sleep as she was dying. "I cannot as I have other appointments", was the curt reply.

When I protested that this was an emergency, the vet repeated he could not come and instead I should go to his clinic.

As I do not drive, I had to pay an exorbitant taxi fare for the journey to the vet's clinic. Once there, I told the vet I wanted my cat to be put to sleep as she was dying.

He offered to give her medicine though he admitted her kidneys were almost gone.

When I asked how much longer she was going to live he just shook his head.

So, against my better judgment, I took her back home, only for her to go from bad to worse. In all, the cat spent nearly 48 hours crying in pain. Had she been put to sleep, she would have been spared this. On the last night, I resolved to go the next day to someone else to put the poor cat out of her misery, but her heart stopped beating shortly before dawn.

I had spent 48 sleepless hours watching her die, tearing me apart in the process. My vet, with all his experience and medical know-how, did not realise she was at the end of her life; while I, a non-medical person, correctly diagnosed her condition and knew she had reached the end.

When I phoned the vet later in the day to complain about what happened, he just said, "Well everyone has to die sometime."

I understand that emergency vets have to stay at their clinic during emergency hours, but not everyone can drive, has access to transport or can carry heavy injured animals.

We now have an ambulance for stray animals but no such service is available for domestic animals.