We've all heard about mechanics who work on a car, just to make it worse - just so the customer has to come back to get something else fixed? Well....
Very unhappy with this clinic and am currently looking for a new one. It seems that every time I take my little pooch in for an ailment (even minor ones), it costs hundreds and even thousands of dollars - which would be ok if that was the end of it - but it seems that each time she goes in, she leaves with another ailment. For instance, I took her in on Sat to have a front paw checked out - she was limping and I feared there was a thorn. The vet had a tech hold her, my little pooch struggled so the tech held her even tighter to keep her under control. My pooch cried out several times, which I attributed it to the vet poking at her paw. He couldn't see anything and decided she needed surgery and to bring her back on Monday, and sold me an anti-inflammatory prescription to give her on Sun. I carried her out and placed her carefully in my car, then when I got home, picked her up and removed her from the car and placed her gently on the ground.. to discover that she couldn't put any weight on her BACK leg - it was just dangling.
So, took her back for her surgery on Monday. Different vet - first, he wanted me to approve the expenditure of blood work - even though I pointed out that she had just had blood work done recently for another problem. He argued that she hadn't had recent blood work....then looked a little closer at the monitor to find that, yes, in fact, she had, so he backed off on that. My point there is that if I hadn't been on the ball, I would have been charged for unnecessary blood work.
Then, when I picked her up this aft, he tells me that they had not realized that she had been given the other prescription (either the first vet didn't write it on the chart, or they just didn't bother to read it), so they seriously over-medicated her, which could now result in liver and/or kidney damage (I'm to watch her for GI bleeding over the next few days). "Oops" was pretty much all they said, although they did give me some different pills "on the house" - oh goody, that just makes everything peachy. When I asked about the back leg, I was told that her knee was blown, that she must have jumped and torn it - I argued that that leg was absolutely fine going in on Saturday, and her feet never touched the ground till I got her home (no jumping or even walking anytime in between), which is when we noticed the injury. He then proceeded to tell me that operative management would range from $1700 to $4000. I was noticeably upset/angry - and he just said they didn't do it, wasn't possible, she had to have jumped, then he just turned and walked away. So now the "thorn" removal has turned into possible major surgery as well as overdosing her on drugs and possibly now serious kidney/liver injury.
Over the past 5 months, I've spent some $3000-4000 on my little sweetheart - this clinic obviously knows a soft touch when they see one. Someone else on this site mentioned that vets look for and exploit emotional attachments, and I totally agree.
This clinic has gotten too big - there are too many vets/techs, and it's the old left hand and right hand thing. I don't trust them anymore and am now shopping around. read more