I would NEVER bring an animal back to this clinic after what happened with my dog on 9/19.
This place wants to take your money and kill your animals.
I would give it a a zero star if i could. Except the Latina woman working that day as an assistant who let my dog keep the blankets and was very kind even tho i was visibly upset and elevated.
THE ONLY thing that was good was that sweet girl.
My dog had broken ribs and absolutely needed emergency care. What I received instead was over an hour of fear, uncertainty, "maybe," "we don't know," and worst-case scenarios that did not match what the next hospital found.
I was told there was blood in my dog's lungs, blood around her heart, and that she was breathing blood out of her nose. They pointed to what looked like a dry scab on her nose and called it blood. I was made to believe my dog was in an even more catastrophic condition than she actually was.
When I finally got her to another emergency hospital, I was told there was NO blood in her lungs, NO blood around her heart, and she was NOT breathing blood out of her nose. She did have seriously broken ribs and needed surgery, but the second hospital was able to explain what was happening, treat her, and SAVE HER LIFE.
What makes this even more upsetting is that this clinic repeatedly told me that TIME WAS CRUCIAL and that she needed to get to another hospital immediately. Yet somehow they spent more than an hour supposedly calling hospitals and telling me they "couldn't get ahold of anyone." I finally started calling myself, and I found a hospital willing to take her almost immediately. How is an owner, while terrified and watching her injured dog suffer, able to accomplish that faster than an emergency veterinary clinic?
I was also told that surgery elsewhere could possibly cost $20,000-$25,000, while at the same time nobody seemed able to give me a confident explanation of what was actually wrong. Everything felt like "maybe this," "maybe that," and "we don't know," followed by another terrifying possibility.
I was visibly upset because I thought my dog could die, and instead of compassion, I will never forget the incredibly unprofessional expression and attitude from the woman sitting at the computer directly behind Room 2. I was not upset because I wanted to be difficult. I was upset because my animal was critically injured, I was being told every minute mattered, and the people I was trusting were not getting her transferred.
Then I was charged around $900 for what amounted to pain medication and X-rays that the next veterinary hospital told me were extremely difficult to interpret. After everything I was told was supposedly happening inside my dog's chest, the hospital that actually treated her found a very different picture.
The entire experience made me feel like this clinic had already given up on my dog and expected me to give up too. I left feeling frightened, defeated, and like I was being prepared for my dog to die instead of being helped to SAVE HER.
Thankfully, I refused to accept that. I kept calling and found another hospital. That hospital took her seriously and performed the surgery she actually needed.
The veterinarian at the second hospital had performed a similar surgery before, but not this exact procedure. She took the initiative to learn how to perform my dog's surgery that night, stayed up all night, and did everything she could to save her. That level of dedication and compassion made an enormous difference.
So far, the surgery, hospital care, and everything the second hospital has done for my dog have cost approximately $5,100--and she is still not even out of the hospital. That is a fraction of the $20,000-$25,000 estimate I was given, and more importantly, this hospital has actually been treating my dog and fighting to save her life.
I understand veterinary medicine involves uncertainty, and I understand that doctors sometimes have to discuss possibilities. But there is a huge difference between explaining a differential diagnosis and repeatedly terrifying an owner with catastrophic statements while failing to arrange the urgent transfer you are simultaneously saying is necessary.
Based on my experience, I would never trust this facility with one of my animals again. If your pet is critically injured and you feel like you are being told to give up, GET A SECOND OPINION. Getting my dog out of this clinic and into another hospital IS the reason she is alive today. read more