Mowery

I.

BACKGROUND

A. Bitty’s Death Mowery owned Bitty, a six-year-old, pure-bred Irish wolfhound. After Mowery noticed Bitty seemed lethargic and had vomited in several places around the house, she took the dog to the Clinic. Mowery told Oliver C. Kenagy, a veterinarian, that she feared Bitty’s ingestion of a foreign object might have caused an obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract. Kenagy said Bitty “probably ate something ‘rotten’ which was causing transient stomach discomfort.” Kenagy palpated Bitty’s abdomen, noticed nothing abnormal, injected several medications, and prescribed others. He did not recommend any diagnostic tests to rule out the possibility of a gastrointestinal obstruction. Mowery took Bitty home. By the following morning, Bitty’s condition had deteriorated. The dog would not swallow, appeared dazed, and could not stand on its own. Mowery took Bitty to the San Diego Pet Emergency & Specialty Center, where the dog was found to be in septic shock. An X-ray film revealed a gastrointestinal obstruction. After two unsuccessful surgical attempts to repair the damage from the obstruction, Bitty’s lungs began to fill with fluid, and Mowery decided to euthanize the…