We just moved back to Ruston and have been looking for a vet for our two and a half year old basset…read morehound. We first heard of Sexton Animal Health Center from a friend who had told us that she would use Sexton if they weren't so expensive. We aren't made out of money, mind you, but we took expensive cost (if that were true) to equal good care. Now, I should point out that I don't know if Sexton is expensive or not. We walked away before we could find out.
We got our dog when she was a year old, and although she's normally fine, she can get very nervous in new settings. When we went into Sexton's, she was visibly scared. I even let the receptionist know she that our dog was scared but that was often the case in new settings.
There had been a mixup on which day we were supposed to be there. I had written down Wednesday, but they said the appointment had been for the previous day. To their credit, they said it was no big deal and they could see us as soon as a room opened up. We had filled out paperwork ahead of time, and I brought in our dog's medical records from our previous vet so that Dr. Sexton would know she was up to date on all of her shots.
After a while, a young lady came out saying she was going to take our dog to the back to get her vitals. She made no effort to connect with our dog. She didn't pet her, call her by name, ask us anything about her or anything. She asked us to take our dog's collar and harness off, which I initially did against my better judgment. Then, she put a slip collar around our dog's neck and -literally- began dragging our dog toward the back. Our dog was panicking with all four legs spread out, but the young lady kept tugging on this leash around her neck.
I stood up and said, "Stop. You cannot pull on a basset hound's neck like that. They are bred to be stubborn and will actually injure themselves before they will yield if they are scared." We've had basset hounds for over 20 years and know what we're talking about. A lot of older basset hounds have serious neck pain and/or injuries from people improperly handling them when they were younger. We use a leash attached to a chest harness for this very reason.
I put our dog's harness and collar back on. I said, "Let me just come back there with you, so she won't be so scared." We walked into the back, and a fellow whom I assume was Dr. Sexton told me in no uncertain terms that I could not be back there.
I find it odd that they would give routine examinations of dogs without the owner present. That was not the norm at all in the last two and a half decades we lived in Kentucky. But if that is the case, you would think that he would have asked me what was going on. I tried to explain that my dog was terrified, but he wouldn't even let me finish. After he told me a second time that I couldn't be back there, I very calmly but sternly said, "Fine. We will find another vet." Walking back into the waiting room, I said to my wife simply, "We need to find a different vet," and we left.
Again, you'd think that Dr. Sexton would have wanted to know what was going on or would have attempted to talk to me, even if not in the back room. I was neither loud nor threatening. I kept my cool the whole time--I think partly because I was stunned at the way everything had unfolded. We had a really great, friendly vet the last few years in Kentucky, and assumed everything would be the same here.
Talk about a huge shift in emotions in just a few minutes time! We walked into the clinic with our spirits high about finding a good place of care for our dog and left stunned, angry, and disheartened.
The whole situation was not just upsetting; it was also bizarre--from the lack of any effort to connect to our dog to wanting to examine her without us being there. I'm sure the staff at Sexton's are a great bunch of folks, but I don't know them. My dog was not growling, snapping or barking, but she was clearly scared and uncooperative. And I'm sorry, but I'm not going to hand my dog over to total strangers when she's in that state.
There were others in the waiting room, so obviously they do good business, and other clients have presumably had much greater success with them than we did. Maybe it was an off day for them. But I tell you their first impression with us stunk. Too many red flags went off for us to trust them with our dog. And that translates to no chance for a second impression.
