Animal hospital accidentally gives cat euthanasia instead of vaccine

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Saturday, January 18, 2020
Cat accidentally gets euthanized during vet visit, family says
"I knew she wasn't going to come back at that point, I just knew it," the cat's owner remembered. "She was pretty much was dying in my arms."

SPRING, Texas -- A Texas woman is at a loss for words after she says her 8-year old cat, Sophie, was accidentally euthanized at an animal hospital.

"Every time I close my eyes, I see that look on her face and I just can't get it out of my head," Michelle Olson said.

Olson and her husband had just picked up Sophie after taking her in for a routine checkup and to get a rabies vaccine when she got a call from the hospital.

"It was the doctor herself calling saying, 'Please get Sophie back here immediately, we gave her euthanasia instead of a rabies vaccine,'" Olson recalled.

They quickly took Sophie back to the vet.

"I immediately took her out of her cat carrier and I held her, talked to her, because I knew that was going to be the last thing she would remember. I knew she wasn't going to come back at that point. I just knew it," recalled Olson. "She pretty much was dying in my arms."

Olson says the vets did everything they could to try and save Sophie, but it was too late.

"They're very sorry, that's all they can say really," Olson said. "It was an accident, I get that, but it was an accident that should've never happened."

When ABC13 reached out to the animal hospital, they acknowledged the incident occurred but said at the advice of their legal counsel, they couldn't comment.

"My main concern is not to bash them at all, just want to make public aware to be vigilant, ask questions that you didn't think you had to ask of your veterinarian so this doesn't happen to anyone else," Olson warned.