Dog dies during ear cleaning procedure

STURGIS, Michigan -- A Michigan couple is considering legal action against an animal clinic after their dog died while he was getting a mundane ear cleaning procedure.

WNDU-TV reports, Rocky the two-year-old German shepherd needed to get his ears cleaned over at Fawn River Animal Clinic. But at some point during the procedure, Rocky died.

"It was very shocking to us. We had no clue that there was even a possibility of death," said Rocky's owner, Ashton Sutton. "They never explained anything to us. The call, it dropped my heart, you know? My heart sank."

This was absolutely devastating to hear, especially for Sutton and his fiancee.

"It's very hard, as me and my fiancee can't have children. So, that was our baby that had passed away on the table," Sutton said.

Fawn River says during the procedure, the dog wouldn't calm down, so they had to use an anesthetic.

They say they gave 8/10 of a cc of xylazine, which they say isn't enough to kill a dog Rocky's size. But then he started having issues breathing, so they gave him 2 ccs of xylazine, and when it wasn't helping, they used 2 ccs of dopram to help him breathe and then atolazine to reverse the effects of the other drugs.

"I didn't give him anything that should have been close to an overdose for his size," said John Lindamood, owner of Fawn River Animal Clinic.

While Rocky's necropsy is still in progress, Lindamood says Rocky most likely reacted badly to the anesthesia.

"Could have been allergies, could have just been the anesthetic results too. Got a lot of them and sometimes anesthetics just...you just can't predict the darn stuff," said Lindamood.

Before the procedure there was one thing missing from all of this - a waiver causing a whole legal mess.

"People come in and we tell them what we're going to do and what the risk is and everything else, but the woman that made it out didn't have anybody sign it. So I don't know. So she's not working here anymore," Lindamood said.

This has Sutton and his fiancee pretty upset.

"So, we're looking to get him shut down and just justice for Rocky," Sutton said.

Lindamood says he is sorry.

"Tell him I'm sorry. It's killing me about as much as it's killing him," Lindamood said.

But sorry isn't going to bring a life back.