I've taken Lovie (cat) to the Brodhead location several times over the last few years (and once or…read moretwice to their Monroe location where we first saw them), and had a couple of issues along the way. One example is their record keeping on rabies shots. They gave him a 3 year vaccine the first time we went there. Then, said he needed another the following year. When I questioned this, they said the previous vaccine had been the "one year" version. I thought maybe I was remembering wrong, so i said OK. The next year, I got another notice that he was due for a rabies shot. I knew for sure he'd gotten the three year version for the second shot, emailed back and forth with their office and thought it was resolved as the didn't mention it in following visits over the last couple of years.
Now, we get to Monday of last week. I made an appointment for euthanasia after Lovie had a massive seizure the day before. He was getting around, but not himself and I didn't want him to suffer. Of course, I was worried if I was making the best decision, so I agreed when they said let's do blood/urine tests thinking maybe I had been jumping the gun. The price was $150 to get results back on Thursday... or I could pay $450 to get results back the same day. $450 was out of my budget since there would be more costs to follow, so I said said the $150 option. Then the veterinarian said we would need a CT scan to check for a tumor if the blood/urine tests didn't find anything. That would be $4000+. I stopped her there and explained I definitely would not do that as Lovie was 22-ish years old and I wouldn't have brain surgery for him at that age anyway. Then, they said he needed another rabies shot! I explained the above... again. The doctor argued, then she had someone from the front desk come in to argue - with both emphasizing the legal side of it - that if Lovie bit someone, animal control would take him away from me to be euthanized all alone without me. When I got home, I emailed them proof that he was covered.
As we waited for the Thursday results, Lovie continued to decline to the point that he didn't eat food on Wednesday. So, I took him to Janesville Animal Clinic (Mineral Point Ave) where they checked him out and agreed with what I was seeing. They were incredibly kind and empathetic, and Lovie had a quick and painless passing.
Brodhead did NOT call with test results on Thursday... or Friday. It was around their closing time on Saturday that I got a voicemail saying the results were in (but not what the results were), and that she would call back on Monday or the following Thursday. Seriously!!! I emailed them that Lovie was already deceased as of the day they were supposed to have called with test results. Their response, "During our discussion, we presented different care options and we did our best to explain the potential outcomes and implications of each. You agreed to starting with bloodwork." Yes, because I thought they would be doing what was best for Lovie - not dragging out his obvious decline. I say obvious because he had lost almost two pounds over the past year or so and his body temperature was low that day. They didn't even apologize for not getting the test results back in a timely manner even though they were in on that Thursday (I checked on their website that Thursday afternoon and the results had come back, but they didn't try to reach me until Saturday.)
At the end of the day, I guess I should have been more assertive, but I trusted the "professionals" and hoped I was wrong about it being the end of Lovie's days. I am, however, glad I went to the second place to give by little buddy a humane end of life experience rather than continuing to let Brodhead VMC drag it out. I would like to add that several friends have said they bad similar bad experiences with this veterinarian.
