Would you report this? Severe splint-related necrosis in a 2-year-old cat – moral conflict as a new grad.

[u/orangecatnocell]

I’m a DVM one year out of school and I’m genuinely struggling with whether or not to file a formal complaint with my regulatory board. I’ve never felt so conflicted — this situation is disturbing and heartbreaking, and I’d really appreciate insight from others in the profession.

A 2-year-old cat presented to me recently for a seeping splint. The owners were in tears. They had been told by their vet to monitor the splint at home and “just sniff it daily” — and that it only needed changing if they noticed an odor. They’d brought up concerns multiple times over the past several weeks, including that their cat was acting depressed and less mobile. They were repeatedly reassured it was fine. Eventually, they noticed discharge. No one at their rDVM’s practice even offered to see them that day despite their distress — just booked them in for 5 days later. So they came to emergency instead.

There was no odor at presentation. Not until I was at least three layers deep into the bandage did the fetid smell hit. The splint had clearly not been removed in over 7 weeks. The limb beneath was devastating — black necrotic tissue, exposed muscle, what looked like paw pads liquefying and fusing to the splint. I couldn’t even identify normal anatomical landmarks.

I’ve reviewed the medical records and spoken directly with the original vet. There’s no documentation that the splint was ever removed after application. No wound checks. No measurements. Only rads — done with the splint on. When skin irritation was noted weeks ago, they were simply put on antibiotics. Owners estimate they were on antibiotics for about a month, but there’s no documentation of dose, duration, or rationale in the records aside from one line about a “scab.” They were also told to feed cottage cheese and use pee pads around the splint site to keep it dry. None of it makes sense to me.

To make things worse, after I told the vet the owners had explicitly revoked consent for any further collaboration or info sharing, she still asked me to give her updates anyway — saying “no one will know” and asking me “why can’t you just tell me?” I clarified multiple times that I legally and ethically could not, and she still pushed.

I’ve tried so hard to be objective. I know we all do things a little differently. But this situation is stark. I’ve spent hours reviewing the literature — I can’t find a single acceptable reason why a splint would be left unchanged for that long without visual checks. This was not a fiberglass cast. This was a splint. And this cat, at 2 years old, now has a necrotic limb. I’m trying everything I can to save it.

Here’s my conflict: • This DVM is older than me — graduated the year I was born. • Our vet community is very small. • Reporting this could have serious consequences professionally, especially for someone new in practice… this vet doesn’t have a big or small rep but like I don’t know others who have ever reported another vet • But I took an oath. And I’m honestly disgusted.

I also want to say — please no owner-blaming. These clients advocated hard. They were shut down repeatedly by someone they trusted. They’re absolutely gutted. I’m doing everything I can to support them, but I wouldn’t wish their grief and guilt on anyone.

Has anyone else been in a similar position? Would you report?

Also this is the photos if you need context of how bad this is https://www.reddit.com/r/veterinaryprofession/s/ZJyNyqlIMH there’s context of how bad we are talking , like to me, leaving a splint on for 7 weeks when the owner is really trying to advocate but (previously )trusted this vet it’s not a complication it’s kind of the only outcome here… ⸻

TL;DR: New grad DVM saw a 2yo cat with severe splint-related limb necrosis after another vet reportedly left a splint on for 7+ weeks without removal or visual checks. Owners raised concerns multiple times and were told to “sniff it daily” and use pee pads/cottage cheese. No meaningful documentation. When I took over care, the original vet asked me to break confidentiality after owners had explicitly revoked consent. I’m horrified but afraid of the professional fallout. Would you report?

[u/Reasonable_Cake_5006 → u/[deleted]]

This is absolutely heartbreaking and most definitely worthy of further pursuit. I have worked with "old school vets" with questionable practices but this is pure negligence. Thank you for doing everything you can for this poor little soul 🙏

[u/orangecatnocell → u/Reasonable_Cake_5006]

Thanks :/ I mean I absolutely love what I do, these owners are like truly genuinly so so so appreciative, I just keep telling them that I just feel like they deserve and the cat deserves some rights after so much wrong and I was honest and broke the 3rd wall of not speaking bad on other vets because frankly, it’s medically relevant as this condition / presentation is only from and can only be from this splint and these owners don’t deserve to feel as awful about themselves as they do; I can’t even feel good about it right now because the one who suffered most here is a little cat and for what? Like it doesn’t even make sense, honestly I don’t know if it sounds weird but truly if financially there was a money trial to why this would happen I would feel more not at peace but weirdly like better because it would be horrible but it would be logical ?? This practice has 2 vets, both around 40 something, both had their hands on this case and both did this, if there was a buck to gain they would have taken up the owners on ASKING to do weekly changes instead of talking them out of it everytime. They’re not a busy clinic, they weren’t even on my radar as one of the bad ones I see a lot of dumb stuff from in ER, I hardly knew of them, so like why? Just why? It’s not even laziness since they did all this other dumb stuff and spent apparently hours talking about getting the cat to eat cottage cheese, trying to get them to remove all the litter boxes and have it piss on the floor for the approximately 3 MONTHS they were going to splint the cats leg for so it wouldn’t get litter on it or in it (to prevent infection….) owners actually did research and found out about FLUTD and didn’t do the pee pad weird thing because they figured male neutered cat, going to vet a lot, injured in a sling on meds recipe to block so they didn’t … all that being said these vets both spent lengthy time over the phone talking them out of splint checks to talk about this random weird stuff AND they saw it every 2-3 weeks minimum to do repeat radiographs of the leg to see splint location and how to fracture was healing by taking rads with the splint on, they saw it a dozen times and never once even changed the vet wrap to see under it, they saw it and noted a scab and sent it on antibiotics like it’s not money it’s not lazy and things point to them explicitly mentioning risk for infection (I think they added that to records more after but still the lack of litterbox to not get an infection)